The Secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) through the Joint Action NaturAfrica/Climate Resilience and Natural Resource Management (C-NRM) Programme supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the European Union (EU), organised a Joint Consultative Workshop on Tourist-Friendly Border Posts and Customer Service Training for SADC Border Officials.
This workshop, facilitated by the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance and Fischer Consulting, was held on 28–29 July 2026 in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, for border officials from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The Joint Consultative Workshop on Improving the Tourism-friendly Border Posts and Tourism Customer Service for Border Officials is central to the competitiveness of regional tourism and forms part of the implementation of the SADC Tourism Programme (2020–2030). The workshop brought together tourism officials and key stakeholders of border officials from Immigration, Customs, Police, Port Health, and Tourism desk officials, as well as Tourism operators and Border-post management structures to examine the challenges encountered by tourists at SADC border posts.
The workshop discussed practical approaches to address these challenges in order to ensure seamless and memorable visitor experiences. The information shared will facilitate the formulation of the SADC Tourism-friendly border post Guidelines.
The workshop also conducted the SADC Tourism Customer Service Training for Border Officials, which was approved by the SADC Ministers of Tourism in May 2025. The overarching objective of the training programme is to strengthen awareness of border officials regarding visitors’ needs and to equip them with the competencies to meet those needs effectively.
SADC remains committed to promoting good governance, accountability, transparency and integrity across the region, in line with its mandate to advance sustainable tourism development and regional integration.
