08 Sep 2022

Women tend to abandon the hospitality and tourism industry when they go up the professional ladder.

Speaking at the women in business symposium in Maun, Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) executive manager- marketing, Ms Keitumetse Setlang, said women constituted 63 per cent in the Botswana tourism industry.

However, she stated that most of those women held junior positions in hospitality, which she said was shocking because women were by nature hardworking, a pre-requirement in the labour intensive hospitality industry.

Ms Setlang said hotels and lodges in urban areas had women in managerial positions as compared to prime tourism destinations in Okavango and Chobe, where it was mostly men in leadership positions.

She highlighted that it was imperative for women to challenge themselves and compete against men for managerial positions because they were capable to deliver.

‘’We have it in ourselves to lead but we tend to hold back as we progress in the professional ladder especially in the prime tourism areas where the camps are mostly managed by men,’’ she said.

Ms Setlang noted that women led businesses were the biggest suppliers of the tourism industry, selling towels, soaps, vegetables, baskets and crafts.

She said BTO engaged with the tourism industry to determine what inputs were required from suppliers so that those would be sold by Batswana entrepreneurs.

Ms Setlang said it was important for entrepreneurs to expand beyond the boarders and take advantage of African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) market because it had proved to be lucrative for Botswana products.

Botswana Investment and Trade Centre Export promotion manager, Ms Itumeleng Teseletso, said Batswana women were hard working and creative as they had produced crafts that stood unique from the rest of the world.

She advised that one needed to focus on a niche product when selling to the AGOA market because they liked uniqueness in their crafts work.

‘’The AGOA market is a conscious market that wants to understand the story behind the product of interest, if it is certified, the health and environment conditions of the place where it was crafted and the inspiration behind that craft,’’ she added.

Ms Teseletso called entrepreneurs to profile their products and also include their own profiles for the world to appreciate stories of Botswana.

The manager emphasised the need for Batswana to protect their intellectual property to avoid being swindled off their property, adding that even when asked for capacity to grow their businesses they should not give away all the information to whoever was assisting them. ENDS