23 Jul 2020

Okavango Research Institute Director and Professor of Tourism Studies, Joseph Mbaiwa has said the country should consider switching to domestic tourism.

Presenting before the Parliament Portfolio Committee Chairperson on Wildlife, Tourism, Natural Resources and Climate Change recently, Professor Mbaiwa noted that Botswana had been too dependent on the international tourism, and that COVID-19 pandemic should be an eye-opener.

Professor Mbaiwa said it was important to promote domestic tourism, adding that there were a lot of products in the country, which could be promoted to benefit the tourism industry.

“This include the cultural tourism products, that we have, so if we are to move forward as a strategy to promote domestic tourism, our agencies which have the responsibility to promote the industry, such as Botswana Tourism Organisation, should put it in their strategy that they are going to market domestic tourism,” he said.

Furthermore, he said also the advantage of domestic tourism was that it would also attract Batswana.

“We must attract Batswana, we should make sure that we take them to areas such as Chobe and Okavango, which were overtime not accessible to them due to high prices,” he said.

He further said, there was a need for the revision of prices in the tourism industry especially in the lucrative spots, so that Batswana could also afford to go and enjoy the country’s flora and fauna.

“For a very long time this industry was accessible to the rich, coming from outside, but now COVID-19 has showed us that focusing on one major source of income is not working for us,” he said.

The tourism industry, he said was hard hit by COVID-19 pandemic and that most of the jobs in especially in the Northern Botswana were lost “There was a report done by Botswana Tourism Organisation, which actually stipulates more information as to how much revenue, jobs, bookings cancellation were lost in the process,” he said.

Prof. Mbaiwa further said that the Northern part of Botswana had been dependent on international tourism, adding that the time was now for the country to move to domestic tourism. ENDS