26 Oct 2017

The SADC secretariat in Gaborone has agreed to fully support and actively assist the Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA) to establish partnerships and secure resources from international cooperating partners towards a tourism destination marketing strategy.

A press release from RETOSA says the strategy aims at moving the SADC region’s share of tourism from its current two per cent global tourist arrivals and receipts to five per cent within the next decade.

It states that they have additionally secured support for the various mechanisms to be adopted in seeking approval from the SADC Ministers for the implementation of Phase 2 of the Trans Frontier Conservation Areas (TFCA) Development strategy to be expanded to include all 18 SADC TFCAs.

According to the release, HATAB chief executive officer, Ms Lily Rakorong said the SADC governments now have the important task of activating the Tourism Coordinating Unit (TCU) at the SADC Secretariat.

She further said the TCU was a key requirement for the completion of the RETOSA transformation. 

She said it must be remembered that RETOSA’s new priority was to secure smart partnership with the region‘s private sector players towards a focused destination marketing strategy for the region.

The release further says RETOSA being a subsidiary of the SADC Secretariat reports to the new Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources.

For his part, RETOSA acting chief executive officer, Mr Kenneth Racombo said the main objectives of the meeting was for RETOSA to provide a briefing on its transformation process thus far and to initiate the formalisation of the partnership and cooperation between SADC and RETOSA as required by the SADC subsidiary guidelines.

The release further states that new priorities were discussed following RETOSA’s recent corporate restructuring which resulted in a new value proposition for its key stakeholders and a new vision which will be achieved through focused destination marketing and strategic investment. ENDS