Botswana: Tourism Master Plan
Tourism industry stakeholders have called on the government to implement the Tourism Master Plan of 2000 which serves as the basic guideline for development of tourism in the country. The plan, they said had excellent recommendations which could take the tourism industry to greater heights if well implemented. They said this during a consultative meeting with the Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Ms Phildah Kereng who engaged them to solicit their input on the development of tourism strategy aimed at reviving the industry which had been hard hit by COVID -19 pandemic.
North West District Council chairman, Mr Kebareeditse Ntsogotlho said the plan could address most of the challenges faced by tourism operators as well as ensure sustainable tourism.
He urged the minister to consider implementing some of the recommendations which could transform the industry because the plan defined the policy framework for tourism development and also outlined development strategies including the design of projections.
Mr Ntsogotlho said the implementation of the plan would assist tourism operators and the community since it covered issues of tourism awareness, promotion and marketing.
The current situation, he said was worrisome as operators were not sure on whether the industry would fully recover. He feared that there would be more business closures and redundancies if the government did not come up with a recovery package. In the district, he said they had annual tourism activities which he wondered if they would be held amid the pandemic.
Councillor Luke Motlaleselelo requested the minister to engage relevant authorities and discuss if they could have direct flights to Maun. He said currently, South Africa has become a red zone and international tourists could not connect to Maun. In an effort to promote citizen participation in tourism industry, he asked the ministry to consider reserving some tourism businesses for the locals citing shuttle transportation, motorised boats among others.
Cllr Motlaleselelo also urged the minister to revisit the issue of royalties and consider reverting them to the district. The district council, he said had tourism projects in the pipeline and could utilize the royalties to implement such projects. Other stakeholders asked the minister to announce when the movement restriction would be lifted saying that would give them confidence that the sector would recover.
They also decried difficulties in accessing funding from tourism related organisations such as National Environmental Fund and others. Responding to the comments, Minister Kereng assured stakeholders that government would look into the tourism master plan, evaluate it and see what was feasible and re-align with the tourism recovery strategy.
"This is the transformation we want because our intention is to explore what is available and not utilized," she added. She also stated that the issue of direct flights was under discussion with relevant authorities and hoped it would finalised soon.
