Victoria Falls' record 565,083 visitors — and the question of how many the Falls can take
The Victoria Falls area received a record combined 565,083 visitors in 2024, passing the pre-pandemic 2019 total, and its airport broke the half-million passenger mark the same year. Growth continued into 2025. Conservation specialists are asking what the ceiling should be for one of the world's great waterfalls.
Key points
- A record combined 565,083 visitors came to the Falls area in 2024 across both banks and the Zambezi National Park, surpassing the 537,980 of 2019.
- The Zimbabwe-side rainforest park alone took 394,681 visitors in 2024 — close to, but not past, its own 2019 record of 397,436.
- Victoria Falls International Airport handled 505,426 passengers in 2024, its first year above half a million, and set a monthly record of 62,279 in July 2025.
- In early 2025 international arrivals kept rising while domestic visits fell — and conservation specialists cite a 1996 estimate that the viewpoints hold about 250 people at a time.
What happened
Victoria Falls — Mosi-oa-Tunya, 'the smoke that thunders' — is a UNESCO World Heritage site shared by Zimbabwe and Zambia, and the economic engine of Zimbabwe's tourism: the country's national arrivals remain well below their 2019 peak even as the Falls themselves set records, an imbalance specialists flag in the official statistics.
Access has been deliberately widened: the airport was expanded in 2016, new direct routes have been added from Europe, the KAZA UniVisa lets visitors cross between the two countries' viewpoints on one visa, and the Victoria Falls border post moved to 24-hour operation at the end of 2025.
Claim by claim
Why this label: The combined total counts the visitor parks on both banks of the Zambezi plus the Zambezi National Park, on Zimbabwe Tourism Authority figures — so one traveller crossing between the Zimbabwe and Zambia sides can be counted on each side. It is a visits total, not a count of unique people.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: Zimbabwe Tourism Authority annual figures (2025 report, p.24), as reported in the specialist Falls press; international visitors drove the recovery from 302,626 total in 2023.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority figures, reported by two Zimbabwean outlets; ZimParks credits the expanded airport, new routes including Frankfurt, and the KAZA UniVisa shared by Zimbabwe and Zambia.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: Airports Company of Zimbabwe figures; traffic was below 70,000 in the Covid years, passed the 2019 benchmark of 374,208 in 2023, and the July 2025 spike was boosted by the COP15 Ramsar wetlands conference.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: Officials promote growth and new records; conservation specialists point to the 1996 IUCN-cited estimate that the viewpoints on both banks hold about 250 people at any one time, and to peak-season pressure on the rainforest paths. The record totals are verified; the safe ceiling is not an agreed number.
On the ladder: credible sources conflict, so we show both workings. One side's own statement is that side's position — never proof.
What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- The 2024 totals and the airport records come from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and the Airports Company of Zimbabwe respectively.
- Growth in 2025 was international-led, while domestic visits to the rainforest fell.
What we don't know yet
- How many individual people the combined 565,083 visits represent — cross-border visitors can be counted twice.
- What visitor ceiling, if any, the two park authorities will formally adopt.
Why it matters
Victoria Falls is Africa's most famous natural attraction and the anchor of two countries' tourism economies. Its recovery past pre-pandemic levels is real — but a waterfall's viewpoints are a fixed, fragile space, so the Falls are becoming the continent's test case for how a natural wonder sets a limit without turning visitors away.
Update history
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