Africa-Press – Botswana. The Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) has been mandated to market Botswana as a tourism destination, grade tourism facilities and develop and diversify the tourism product.
Answering a question in Parliament on Monday on behalf of the Minister of Tourism and Environment, the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Major General Pius Mokgware said in the past five years BTO, have been successful in citizen empowerment through tourism community joint venture partnership and tourism product development as per its mandate.
He said BTO has facilitated the allocation of 21 tourism sites and concession areas to citizens and these included tourism sites and lodge sites with those allocated land at different levels of development.
Maj. Gen Mokgware further said there is joint venture partnerships for two community trusts in Mababe and Khwai with a level of investment of P72 million, rentals amounting to more than P3.2 million per annum and employment of 127 people.
He added that more joint venture partnerships are being sought for other communities such as Mandunyane, Mmadinare, Motlhabaneng, Lentswe-le-moriti, Mathathane, Kanye and Khuis.
The minister said on tourism product development, BTO has developed camp site facilities at Khawa, which contributed to tourism product diversification efforts and enabled the Khawa campground to be developed into a year round destination, providing accommodation for tourists visiting the adjacent KD15 concession area. He said the campground would also be utilised in the near future by transit tourists travelling to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) through the entrance gate to be established 20 kilometers from Khawa.
The minister said BTO has also facilitated the allocation of a 406.2-hectare site along the Molopo Fossil River, which would be utilised for the development of the Khuis tourism park.
He said the project would entail the development of accommodation facilities and the introduction of activities such as quad biking, segway rides and zip lining, adding that the construction of a gatehouse has commenced as the first stage of the project.
He further said BTO has facilitated the development of a cultural village, which also included a campground and accommodation in Phuduhudu along the Trans-Kgalagadi Highway.
The project, he noted, would showcase the cultures of nine communities in the Hukuntsi district from Ukhwi, Ngwaatle, Zutshwa, Monong, Maake, Inalegolo, Ncaang, Hunhukwe and Phuduhudu who have formed the Western Kalahari Cultural Trust and designs have been completed and approved with the tender process for construction having commenced.
The minister said identification of investors for the Kasane Kazungula Redevelopment Programme, a land identified along the Chobe River Front is ongoing, whilst for Gaborone, the development process is underway for identification of investors for the site as it is necessary for the development of urban tourism.
He further said BTO has embarked on several interventions to keep destination Botswana resilient against COVID-19 and these included promotional campaigns that were geared towards boosting domestic market demand and international source market relevance and recovery from COVID-19.
Maj. Gen Mokgware said the campaigns comprised of rediscover Botswana campaign for domestic market, production of Domestic Travel Guide and Packages that offered affordable packages tailored for the local market and a special permit for COVID-19 Interzonal travel was also introduced to facilitate local travel.
He said another intervention was digital marketing, which was meant to reach international markets and maintain the dream of visiting Botswana in the minds of travelers, which included among others, visual tours like Botswana Live, a virtual tour capturing Botswana’s key attractions to remain relevant within the travel market.
The minister said BTO hosted Botswana Travel and Tourism Virtual Expo (BTTVE) 2020, a business to business engagement between the local private sector and global wholesalers together with participation on international travel trade fairs virtually.
He added that BTO implemented marketing strategies to fast track recovery and the aggressive marketing campaigns were largely in the form of trade-based marketing through which, BTO facilitated the industry to participate at various local and international trade travel fairs and exhibitions.
In addition, he further said special marketing campaigns were adopted to keep travel trade abreast about Botswana as a destination, which included destination training and workshop, familiarisation tours, partnerships between Botswana and top end German tour operators and Gastronomy tourism.
The minister said by 2023, the industry had recovered 76 percent of the pre-pandemic levels (1.6 million visitors).
He said most of the country’s traditional long-haul source markets had recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
The minister added that United States of America and Germany had surpassed 2019 levels by 10 and nine percent respectively.
He said the sectors’ total contribution to Gross Domestic Product had increased from P13.6 billion during COVID-19 in 2020 to P32.8 billion in 2023, representing 91 percent recovery of the pre-pandemic total contribution of P35.9 billion.
Maj. Gen Mokgware said BTO also faced challenges, among them delays in implementing Dams Tourism initiative due to several factors including the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said there is need to hold pre-tender workshops for potential bidders to improve the quality of submissions and the fact that BTO still does not have a head lease from Water Utilities Corporation for Letsibogo, Shashe and Thune Dams.
The minister also said lack of funds hinders the implementation of tourism diversification projects and marketing initiatives, together with the lack of a budget for bulk infrastructure at dams.
He was responding to a question from the MP for Molepolole North, Mr Arafat Khan who had asked minister the mandate of BTO, its successes and failures in the five years as well as its compliance status with the Auditor General.
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