08 Sep 2020

Business Botswana’s tourism sector chairperson, Ms Lilly Rakorong, has admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic has crippled the tourism sector.

Ms Rakorong, also Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB) chief executive officer, said the zoning of the country including movement restrictions had increased problems faced by the tourism sector since January.

She said inter-zonal movements demanded permits, something that adversely affected the tourism regions since movement to those areas had significantly reduced.

Ms Rakorong said congregates were allowed at less than 50 people per conference facility and that conveyed unparalleled bookings compared to before leading to financial downturn in proceeds.

“The greater Gaborone lockdown had also been impactful to the tourism sector as more local tourists could not travel to tourists sites hence jeopardising the sector during the extended period of the lockdown,” she said.

She further indicated that the sector experienced a lot of international bookings cancellations due to travel bans, posing more constraints to the tourism sector.

Ms Rakorong highlighted that 80 per cent of the tourism sector revenue was from international arrivals and therefore, the ban in international had significantly impacted the sector as such government was faced with the burden of resuscitating the sector.

However, Ms Rakorong stated her department had proposed plans aimed at resuscitating the sector such as government financial support for at least nine months.

She said it appeared that it would take several months before international tourists could return to Botswana in substantial numbers, hence the need to seek financial aid from government to assist vulnerable SMEs in the sector.

“We have to begin preparations to allow international tourists in to Botswana. The multi-billion Pula Botswana tourism industry cannot be sustained by local or even regional tourism. It is imperative that we start planning to resume receiving overseas tourists as soon as safely and practically possible,” she said.

Ms Rakorong noted that to ensure return of foreign tourists, there was need to extend all existing support measures for the industry already until the industry was restored.

She said they had liaised with the Ministry of Health and Wellness to establish their preparedness and interventions to curb the cancellation of bookings as another way of preparing for international arrivals. Ends