11 Oct 2020

Government has approved an extension of the wage subsidy for the tourism sector for the months July to December.

Briefing the media in Gaborone on October 10, Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Ms Philda Kereng said the wage subsidy would follow the same guidelines as the initial April-June wage subsidy, saying Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) was processing payment for all operators who had fulfilled the requirements as outlined in the ministry Facebook page.

On other issues, Ms Kereng said COVID-19 had presented a number of challenges to the tourism sector in particular, as well as to all Batswana and the world and as such her ministry had to come up with various initiatives in order to kick-start the tourism industry.  

She further said according to the World Tourism Organisation, domestic tourism was expected to return faster and stronger than international travel, hence domestic tourism would help the country to recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19 by safeguarding jobs and protecting livelihoods.

“To stimulate local travel, Government has embarked on various domestic travel campaigns and all tourism categories are now allowed to open to do business, however, with closed borders and no international travel,” she stated.

Additionally, Ms Kereng said the ministry had been engaging with the tourism operators to design packages that could be attractive and affordable to Batswana in order to encourage them to travel and see different parts of their own country.

Commenting on tourism during the past holidays, Ms Kereng said the ministry facilitated the issuance of travel permits for tourism purposes during the independence holidays. 

However, due to the spike in COVID-19 cases there was restriction on movement of people during those holidays.

She said a total of 6 076 travel permits for tourism purposes were approved during the independence holidays.

She further noted that the ministry was engaging with key stakeholders on how to open up the country for international tourists.

Ms Kereng therefore urged the public to start planning early and making bookings to allow for processing of permits ahead of the Christmas holidays. ENDS