28 Apr 2019

A Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) official, Ms Bingani Setume has underscored the need for community trusts to make marketing part of their annual budgets.

Responding to some comments from some members of the trusts who requested BTO to assist them in marketing their campsites recently, Ms Setume advised trusts to budget well.

She advised them to allocate at least 30-40 per cent of their budget to marketing strategy, especially starters in order to thrive in the tourism industry.

They said they were making efforts to operate campsites, but the market seemed to be a challenge and were financially challenged to attend big events such as the Indaba Expo, the largest tourism and travel expo held in South Africa, where they could expand their market.

She said BTO was set up to market tourism products and to grade and classify tourist accommodation as well as promote investment in the tourism sector.

Trusts, she said should market themselves under the national brand and urged them to take advantage of BTO’s website and calendar of events.

Ms Setume also explained the principle of royalties, noting that they were meant to develop and grow the tourism industry.

Initially, she said the royalties were collected by councils and returned to government coffers, hence it was difficult to develop the sector.

She said a decision was made to transfer collection to BTO, which is mandated to promote tourism.

She said they intend to expand collection to those outside the buffalo fence.

The Ministry of Environment, Natural Resource, Conservation and Tourism expressed its intention to sub-divide big concessions to cater for locals.

Minister Kitso Mokaila revealed that they had already engaged some operators on the issue and advised community trusts to handle the issue with diligence.

He said some concessions were very big and a big portion of land was under-utilised.

He stated that the portion could be allocated to members who have interest to venture into tourism activities.He said some may want to partner with the communities, which was a welcome development.

Ms Setume concurred that some concessions such as NG38, were very big and appreciated that the ministry had engaged operators.

She said it was promising as some operators were not against sub-division but stated that sub-division for those who were against it could be done at the end of their contracts.

She advised Khwai community to take part in the development of their management plan, which she said has a lot of opportunities. She said the plan was developed to guide land utilisation.

She also explained that NG19  concession was a shared resource and assured Khwai trust that they would engage relevant authorities to ensure both use the resource equally to avoid conflicts.

It was reported that the trust had closed some roads as people were trespassing.

Khwai trust chairperson, Mr Jura Amose called for the minister’s intervention, noting that they had invested P2.5 million to renovate Tsaro Lodge, but the facility had been operated by an investor for the past four years.

He said the community wanted their facility back as they were not benefiting from it. Mr Mokaila promised to look into the matter. ENDS