04 Aug 2022

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism intends to undertake a study to determine the extent of tourism leakages emanating from foreign-based bank accounts for local tourism services.

Answering a question in Parliament on behalf of the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Mr Mabuse Pule said the study, which would commence next month, was expected to be completed in March 2023.

He said the study would inform the strategy to deal with such leakages as well as assist on benchmarking exercises to establish how other developing countries dealt with such. 

He further said it would advise on how statutes could be harmonised to ensure optimal revenue collection from tourism operations.

Mr Pule also noted that tourism was a global entity, hence there were external agents engaged to reach internationally clients on behalf of the local industry.

Specially Elected MP, Dr Unity Dow had asked what plans the ministry had, if any, to ensure that payment for tourism services for external tourists were paid into bank accounts in Botswana. 

She also asked if the minister appreciated that the existing arrangement, where nationally based tourism held external bank accounts into which they received payments for services provided in Botswana, robbed the country of the benefit of such funds. 

Dr Dow further asked if the minister appreciated that the arrangement would not be allowed in other developing countries. Ends