27 Sep 2015

Tourism is one of the sustainable sectors given the tourist attraction sites that the country has.

Speaking at World Tourism Day commemoration, Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Tshekedi Khama said said many countries had diamonds, but with tourism, Botswana had its own unique tourist attraction sites such as the Makgadikgadi pans and the Okavango Delta.

He said despite some challenges faced by the sector, he was happy with the performance of tourism, adding that recently tourists’ numbers in the country had increased.

One of the challenges, Mr Khama said, was that the country did not have direct flights from the United Kingdom, United States, among other markets, hence missing out a certain number of tourists that could be coming in the country.

Furthermore, Khama said tourism had become a powerful and transformative force that was making a genuine difference in the lives of millions of people.

Meanwhile, this year’s World Tourism Day highlighted the global potential of tourism for socio-economic development, with more than one billion international tourists now travelling the world each year.

One billion tourists crossed international borders in 2012, hence the World Tourism Day theme of: One Billion Tourists One Billion Opportunities.

Minister Khama thus noted that through the right actions and choices, each tourist represented and opportunity for a fairer more inclusive and more sustainable future. ENDS