07 Jul 2019

Minister of Youth Empowerment, Culture and Sport Development, Mr Tshekedi Khama has implored the youth to not only focus in Botswana for tourism opportunities, but to also look for prospects elsewhere.

Speaking at the Youth Tourism Expo in Kasane on July 5, Mr Khama said tourism grew by seven per cent worldwide with 671 million tourists in Europe and only 62 million in Africa during the 2017/18 period.

He said the statistics indicated a potential in tourism growth in Africa.

He urged Batswana youth to showcase Tswana culture in regions where tourism was doing well.

Mr Khama said Botswana still lagged behind in terms of connectivity such as roads hence some areas were not accessible.

He urged the youth to take “this as an advantage to market inaccessible places such as Shakawe and attract tourists to them.”  

He acknowledged that shortage of funds remained a challenge, saying P120 million per annum for the youth was not enough.

Mr Khama said since the youth form 60 per cent of the country’s population, other ministries such as agricultural development and food security, environment, natural resources conservation and tourism, transport and communications, infrastructure and housing development and that of investment, trade and industry should have their own Youth Development Funds (YDF) in order to reach a higher number of youth.

He said his ministry proposed that the P120 million should be increased to P400 million so that the youth’s potential was unlocked.

He encouraged the youth to come up with ideas that could be formulated into policies that could empower them more instead of government officials coming with such ideas.

The minister said at some stage tourism would be saturated and that the youth should look at sustainability as well and engage in research tourism, adventure tourism, recycling and environmental tree planting.  

He said tourism was not only about receiving tourists, but that there were other opportunities that called for other funders such as Citizen Entrepreneurial Agency (CEDA) and commercial banks to come aboard.

He said some of the requirements by commercial banks such as security deposit disadvantaged the youth and needed to be looked into.

He assured the youth of support from government through his ministry in helping their businesses to grow and develop their talent.

Chobe MP, Mr Machana Shamukuni, who is also Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, thanked MYSC for hosting the Youth Tourism Expo in Kasane.

He said the event provided a platform for the youth in Chobe to interact with those from other districts and network on issues of tourism.

Mr Shamukuni said tourism, just like minerals, was one of the pillars of the economy and had the potential to grow.

He urged the youth to have a keen interest in tourism and also urged them to forgo some of their hobbies such as alcohol and partying for them to excel in the industry.

Mr Shamukuni said the youth in Botswana were fortunate as they had the YDF that was unavailable in other countries.

He implored them to utilise it to realise their dreams.

He encouraged the youth to understand the value chain in the tourism industry so that they could explore all opportunities to service the sector.

He further encouraged them to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the industry such as the forest reserves that would soon be opened for tourism.

Mr Shamukuni said the other opportunity was the Kasane/Kazungula Redevelopment Plan which, he said, would avail more land for tourism activities.

He implored them not be deterred by some policies such as those of the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) that required an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as some projects such as bed and breakfast and safaris did not require an EIA.  

The Chobe MP implored captains of various industries to support youth businesses by procuring from them.

The Youth Tourism Expo was held under the theme: Promoting youth participation and integrating technology in the tourism sector.

It was the second one following the inaugural one in Maun last year. ENDS