09 Feb 2021

The Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism has engaged the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to develop the national strategy and masterplan that is expected to identify gaps in the collection of tourism statistics and guide the way forward. 

This was said by Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Ms Phildah Kereng when answering a question in Parliament on February 8.

She said in the meantime, the ministry was mobilising resources to come up with an updated tourism satellite account. 

The tourism satellite account, she said, was the standard statistical framework developed by UNWTO and approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) for measuring the economic contribution of tourism to an economy consistent with the way other economic sectors were measured in the system of national accounts. 

Furthermore, she said it was difficult to disaggregate the number that had lodged in Maun before or after proceeding to the delta because not all tourists who went into the Okavango Delta had come in through Maun Airport, adding that some had actually been in Maun and had come by road.

She also stated that the ministry did not have tourist arrival statistics for 2019 and 2020, and that it was important to note that Statistics Botswana was the body responsible for collecting tourist arrivals statistics and shared that with the ministry for further analysis and reporting and that they were always behind by a year.   

She said available statistics were for the year 2016 to 2018 and that during that period there were 54 379 arrivals in 2016, 38 211 in 2017 while 39 649 arrivals were registered at Maun airport in 2018.

Ms Kereng also stated that tourists arriving in Botswana were categorised into holiday/leisure, business, in transit and other as purposes of visit.  

“Therefore, currently there is no information detailing the number of tourists arriving in Maun and proceeding to the delta or having Maun and its catchment area as the final destination,” she stated  

She also informed Parliament that the ministry undertook visitor tourism’s annual visitor exit Survey, and that the following could be deduced.

She said out of the total tourists who visited Botswana, on average,  15 per cent had indicated that they visited Maun in 2016 (244 352), 2017  (243 405), 2018  (248 196)  and that seven per cent had indicated that they had visited specifically the Okavango Delta.   

Ms Kereng further said it was important to develop more activities within Maun to make tourists spend more time in the village, and that some of these activities included cultural activities and provision of local cuisine.

“For these activities to happen, it requires that all of us leaders must engage with our constituents to venture into more tourism products to attract visitors,” she said.    

Maun West MP, Mr Dumelang Saleshando had asked the minister to state the total number of international tourists that had used Maun airport as their port of entry on their way into the Okavango Delta in the past three years.

He also wanted the minister to state the percentage of the arrivals that lodged in Maun before proceeding to the delta or on their return. ends