09 Jul 2015

Boteti East has 11 licensed tourist facilities that also provide accommodation.

Answering a question in Parliament, Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Tshekedi Khama said the area was also part of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans and home to the famous Lekhubu Island, which was frequented by day visitors.

The community of Mmatshumo (Gaing-O- Community Trust), he said, operated a campsite at Lekhubu Island.

He further said some potential operators had also shown interest in operation of quad bikes activities in the Makgadikgadi pans as that was a potential product to complement existing activities.

Mr Khama said there were currently 135 people of which 30 were males, 103 were females employed in the sector in the 11 licensed facilities in Boteti East villages. Out of the 11 facilities, he said one was a joint venture and the remaining 10, were citizen-owned.

The ministry, he said was carrying out public awareness campaigns in an effort to encourage Batswana to participate in the tourism opportunities in their areas.

He said in April 2015, the Department of Tourism in collaboration with Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture commenced the campaigns in Boteti West and would proceed to Boteti East in due course.

As for Mokubilo, he said he had already covered through the campaigns, adding that the Department of Tourism also invited a craft producer (basketry) to the northern Letlhafula Cultural Festival to show case her product in effort to expose her to potential buyers.

He said there was also an upcoming workshop for craft producers to be held on August 17.

“It is also worth noting that the Botswana Tourism Organisation has also solicited and collected profiles of tourism allocated land from the area to facilitate joint venture partnership,” he said.

Boteti East MP, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe had wanted the minister to apprise the house on the tourism activities in Boteti East. Also, he wanted to know the number of people employed in the sector per village and how many were run by foreigners and citizens respectively.

In addition, he wanted to know the efforts done by the ministry to encourage Batswana to get involved in tourism opportunities that prevail in Boteti East. ENDS