25 Mar 2020

Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Ms Philda Kereng, says her ministry continues to implement policies and strategies to facilitate growth of the tourism industry.

Officiating at re-opening of Wilderness Safaris Mombo Camp in Okavango recently, Ms Kereng said her ministry had revised the Tourism Policy, which would be tabled in Parliament during the next sitting.

This, she said, was motivated by changes in the tourism environment, especially growing competition from SADC states who had similar products.

The minister said it was government’s vision to ensure that Botswana remained a destination of choice for tourism and conferencing. 

She said their vision was to ensure that economic opportunities such as operations in the delta yielded high social and economic returns to the communities living in and around the delta.

Ms Kereng further said the ministry intended to cushion the sector against external shocks such as COVID-19, adding that the local market could keep people in their jobs.

She appreciated that tourism was a major foreign exchange earner and an important vehicle for economic diversification.

According to the 2016 Tourism Satellite Account, she said, the tourism sector contributed an estimated 4.9 percent to Growth Domestic Product (GDP) with international inbound and domestic tourism expenditure at P14.5 billion and creating 18 666 jobs.

Given the cross cutting nature and links with other sectors along its vast value chain, Ms Kereng said tourism had potential to contribute to the economy significantly.

The minister also acknowledged Wilderness Safari’s contribution to high value tourism product as well as employment creation.

She commended the company for the achievement and encouraged management to even do more by giving more opportunities to Batswana, including supporting and facilitating the employees to buy shares within the company.

She also appreciated that Mombo Camp had been awarded a number of international accolades, including the Society of British International Design Awards. 

The safari company, she said, had showed the world the true splendor of what Botswana had to offer. 

Ms Kereng said the company’s investment framework to product development was what would keep them in the market for a long time, adding that the investment framework should incorporate both infrastructure and human resource development.

 “With a total of P140 million invested into Mombo, P40 million in King’s Pool and over P65 million on the ongoing works at Duma Tau, which I had the joy of seeing it, surely you are one of the leaders in the industry both locally and regionally,” she added.

She acknowledged that their safari vehicles were locally-made and that much of the products in the camp were Botswana made.

Ms Kereng also revealed that her ministry was monitoring the situation of working and housing  the tourism industry staff in the delta. 

She reiterated that the media had been circulating disturbing news about appalling working and housing conditions of safari employees. 

She warned safari companies to understand that their human resources were important, hence the need to be well cared for. 

The minister also emphasised the need for safari companies to provide their staff with the COVID19 requisite amenities.

Where possible, she requested them to minimise movement to reduce possibilities of contacting and spreading the virus. 

Ms Kereng pointed out that the tourism industry had experienced a setback in the terms of the COVID-19 pandemic. ends