The workshop was convened by the SADC Secretariat and brought together senior personnel from the five partner states, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, alongside representatives from South Africa in its current capacity as SADC chair.

On the second day, the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance (SATA) delivered its Tourism-Focused Customer Service Training for Border Officials. SATA piloted the course through a train-the-trainer programme in 2024, building a facilitator curriculum, delegate manuals, and role-plays drawn from real border scenarios.

The training was delivered in support of the SADC Tourism Programme 2020-2030, which aims to build a sustainable regional tourism industry and reduce the non-tariff barriers that slow travel between member states. Victoria Falls holds a key position as a gateway to the Kavango Zambezi tourism circuits, where many itineraries cross several national borders. The training recognised that effective border management balances security with empathy, enabling stakeholders to respond professionally to the diverse needs and expectations of travellers.

“Every visitor’s experience begins with the people they encounter on arrival,” said Natalia Rosa, SATA tourism project lead, who facilitated the workshop in Victoria Falls. “For many, the border provides both the first and last impression of a destination, making these stakeholders the gatekeepers of our regional reputation.”

While border officials are primarily recognised for safeguarding national borders, the programme recognised their equally important role in representing the region to visitors. Sessions covered verbal, non-verbal and cross-cultural communication, alongside practical conflict de-escalation techniques for those working in pressured situations. Throughout the training, participants explored how customer service strengthens effective border management without compromising security.

The training also highlighted the wider role tourism plays in supporting the SADC region’s economies. Every visitor who crosses the border supports a network of accommodation providers, restaurants, guides, transport operators and attractions. Participants were encouraged to recognise that the welcome visitors receive at the border can influence whether they return, recommend the destination or choose to explore more of the region in future.

“One of the programme’s greatest strengths was bringing together the people who lead border operations across the region,” Rosa said. “By building a shared understanding of the dual role border stakeholders play as custodians of national security and ambassadors for the region, participants can reinforce that approach within their own teams. That consistency benefits travellers, supports effective border management and strengthens regional tourism.”

Some of the continent’s connectivity gaps have narrowed over the past year. Qantas added Perth to Johannesburg, Edelweiss introduced its A350 service to Windhoek, Air Congo announced a Brussels link to Kinshasa, and Ethiopian secured approval to serve Mauritius. If those routes can move from proposal to operation, why do others with similarly strong demand remain unserved?

That question sat at the centre of a discussion at AviaDev Africa 2026 in Gaborone, the continent’s main route development forum, where airlines, airports and tourism bodies meet to build new air links. It was chaired by Natalia Rosa, Project Lead at the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance (SATA).

The panel agreed that none of the stakeholders can make a route work alone. Airports need traffic, tourism boards need visitors and airlines need confidence that travellers have a reason to come. Rosa described it as a relationship, but as Keira Langford-Johnson, Business Development Director at Proflight Zambia, pointed out, not an equal one. The airline carries the risk, committing aircraft, crew and operating costs long before it knows whether demand will materialise.

Those costs do not move with the load. A half-empty aircraft burns much the same fuel as a full one, and no marketing campaign can change that. Airlines therefore look for evidence that demand will persist beyond a route launch. What they need, Langford-Johnson said, is proof that the market can sustain itself once the initial excitement fades. Too often that evidence never reaches the table. “What are people doing after they arrive? Where do they go? How do they move? That’s the data that builds a route,” she said.

Rupert Kraus of Discover Airlines, part of the Lufthansa Group, described a similar approach. Passenger numbers alone are rarely enough. He wants to see broader indicators of growth: hotels being developed, cargo volumes increasing and new industries investing in a destination. “If I only looked at the data in front of me, I’d struggle to justify the route,” he said.

With a limited fleet and a growing list of potential destinations competing for capacity, airlines need confidence that a market can support service over the long term rather than generate short bursts of demand.

The data exists, Kraus argued, yet it remains fragmented. Road transfer operators, charter companies and tourism businesses already collect much of the information airlines need to assess whether a route can succeed: who is travelling, where they are going, when they are travelling and in what numbers. Together, those datasets provide a far richer picture of demand than airlines often receive.

Langford-Johnson illustrated the point with three of Proflight Zambia’s recent routes into Livingstone, Maun and Windhoek, all of which emerged from conversations at AviaDev. None were obvious additions to the network, and Proflight does not launch new routes lightly. What changed was the preparation. Airport authorities, tourism boards and regulators arrived with a 72-page business case covering demand, market potential, operating costs and demographics. When information was missing, the airline asked for it and the partners supplied it. “If you’re not exchanging something, it’s just a meeting,” she said. The partners brought the evidence, helping build the confidence Proflight needed to launch the route.

Gathering the evidence is only part of the process. Keeping stakeholders aligned can be harder. As Tatamo Rakotozafy, Head of Aeronautical Activities at Ravinala Airports, explained, tourism authorities, airports and governments often approach route development with different priorities and measures of success.

The route is more likely to move forward when stakeholders can align around a shared economic objective. That common purpose becomes especially important when political priorities change or commercial pressures emerge.

Rakotozafy was describing alignment within a country. Justice Ofentse, Acting CEO of the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO), argued that the same principle applies across borders. Smaller destinations, he said, are often more effective when they approach airlines collectively rather than competing against one another for the same aircraft and investment.

His argument was that the region should present itself as a single market, rather than a collection of individual destinations each making separate pitches to carriers.

One event could supply exactly the evidence airlines keep asking for. The 2027 T20 Cricket World Cup, shared by South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, is expected to move more than 340,000 people across the three countries.

As Ofentse suggested, the tournament will test whether the three countries can present themselves to travellers as a connected destination instead of three separate markets.

Bronwen Auret, Chief Quality Assurance Officer at South African Tourism, acknowledged that creating that level of coordination requires effort well beyond the tourism sector. The tournament, however, provides a practical opportunity to bring together air access planning, tourism promotion and regional cooperation around a single event.

If the planning is done well, she argued, it could also generate valuable data on how visitors moved through the region and where demand was concentrated.

Those patterns are the evidence airlines keep asking for. Whether the region can bring them together into a convincing demand case may determine which of its long-discussed routes finally move from proposal to schedule.

The panel recording can be viewed here.

The programme, supported by the German Government and the European Union and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, provides a coordinated regional roadmap for sustainable tourism development across the 16 SADC member states.

The session brought together representatives from SADC member states, and delivered evidence that measurable progress is being made on three fronts: visa harmonisation, air access, and cross-border product development.

“Regional cooperation remains central to unlocking tourism’s full potential as a driver of inclusive growth, employment and environmental stewardship across Southern Africa,” said Marygoreth Mushi, Programme Officer for Policy and Market Development, SADC Secretariat.

Air access study charts course for improved regional connectivity

Mushi reported that an Air Access Study has been completed and submitted for ministerial review. The study, which feeds into the Air and Road Access Improvement Programme, identifies the slow pace of Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) implementation as the region’s primary structural constraint, alongside high aviation taxes, insufficient regional and intercontinental routes, and inadequate infrastructure.

Its recommendations include fast-tracking SAATM adoption, harmonising aviation-related taxes and charges, and coordinating infrastructure investment across member states.

“We all understand that tourism might not have a direct mandate over air transport, however it is highly affected,” Mushi noted, explaining the study’s centrality to the region’s broader tourism ambitions.

The Southern Africa Tourism Alliance (SATA), which represents tourism associations across the SADC region, confirmed its role in operationalising the study’s findings once approved: translating ministerial-level recommendations into practical on-the-ground improvements through its private sector networks.

SADC UniVisa pilot delivers cross-border travel progress

Mushi reported substantial progress on the SADC Tourism UniVisa pilot, now operational across Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The ICT architecture for immigration systems, legal frameworks and revenue sharing models have been implemented and benchmarked against the KAZA UniVisa and East African Tourism Visa. A Tourism-Focused Customer Service Training Programme has also been developed for immigration and border personnel, designed to balance security requirements with visitor experience.

SATA has supported delivery of these frameworks through its member networks, including border management training at the Kazungula crossing connecting Botswana and Zambia and a pilot train-the-trainer programme for disaster risk management officials in ministries and national tourism organisations.

Cross-border integration advancing through Transfrontier Conservation Areas

Nick Tucker of Boundless Southern Africa, working with the SADC Secretariat on tourism market development across Transfrontier Conservation Areas, underscored the practical significance of reducing cross-border friction. “Nothing makes regional integration tangible like a functioning cross-border tourism experience. Every time we reduce friction, we increase competitiveness,” Tucker said.

2030 targets

Mushi outlined the programme’s central objective: to ensure that by 2030, cross-border multi-destination tourism in Southern Africa exceeds the global average growth rate. The session reinforced that the partnership model – uniting government, private sector and conservation stakeholders under a shared framework – provides the institutional architecture to deliver on that commitment.

The session was chaired by Shamilla Chettiar, Acting CEO of SA Tourism, who noted that relationships are foundational to how the sector functions: “We all want tourism to work. We collaborate with each other in order to compete.”