31 Mar 2016

 Botswana benefits from hotel reservations made outside the country. Answering a question in Parliament on behalf of Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Minister of Lands and Housing, Mr Prince Maele said some bookings were directly made by the visitors electronically while other visitors went through foreign based travel agents and tour operators.

Through this approach, he said, information on the country’s accommodation facilities was readily available in international markets, adding that in this regard, the country gained from the foreign exchange revenue generated by such markets, thereby increasing the industry’s competitiveness at high spending markets.

Minister Maele said the exact amount due to local operators was either transferred electronically to the operators’ accounts or paid in cash upon arrival during check in. He noted that in instances whereby a holiday was booked through foreign operators or agents, 30 to 40 per cent of revenue remained in the source countries as fees for wholesalers/tour operators/travel agents/travel insurance and long haul flights whereas the remaining 60 to 70 per cent of revenue was remitted to the destination country.

The loss of revenue or structural leakages, he explained, was due to nature of the tourism sector itself. He said because Botswana’s tourism industry was not fully developed to capture all the revenue in the vale chain, the purchases were generally made through intermediaries in the tourist’s country.

He, however, explained that Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism was working on a comprehensive study on the structural leakages to advise government on how to derive maximum benefit from the tourism industry.

Okavango MP, Mr Bagalatia Arone, had asked the Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism how Botswana benefitted from hotel reservations made outside the country.
He also wanted the minister to further outline the revenue sharing process. ENDS