18 Sep 2022

Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB) chief executive officer, Ms Lily Rakorong has emphasised the need to ensure that hospitality and tourism businesses capitalise on both domestic and international markets post COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms Rakorong said this at the launch of Tokafala tourism value chain programme in Maun recently.

However, she said a lot remained to be done in the tourism industry so that the industry was 100 per cent revived and operational.

Ms Rakorong encouraged Ngamiland entrepreneurs to take advantage of the advisory and mentorship services that Tokafala offered.

Tokafala is an enterprise and youth development programme aimed to enhance entrepreneurship, create employment, and contribute towards economic development targeted towards citizen-owned small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs).

She also encouraged businesses to take the mentorship programme seriously in order to revive their businesses that had been affected by COVID-19.

The Tokafala launch saw about 40 new companies enroll with the programme. Ms Rakorong said the new companies would learn how to seal deals online and implement effective promotion strategies.

She said at the beginning of HATAB and Tokafala’s collaboration in 2020, the two organisations mobilised a total of 74 companies in the tourist-led areas of Maun and Kasane for a period of 10 months of mentorship and monitoring.

“With the focus now on post recovery phase for COVID-19, it is worth noting that the tourism sector would re-bounce sooner than later being facilitated by the available market that has been thirsty to travel,” she said.

Tokafala programmes manager, Mr Morulaganyi Mowaneng said Tokafala, through its enterprise development programme, would provide training and mentorship to help improve business management skills and provide guidance on reviving growth strategies for the 40 selected companies.

Mr Mowaneng said during the recovery phase, it was important that companies understood their operational efficiencies so that they would be able to break even and start making profit.

He highlighted that the programme was tailor-made for companies in the tourism value chain in Maun and surrounding areas for a period of 10 months.

Moreover, he said of the participants, there was a gender balance with 50 per cent being male owned companies’ while the other 50 per cent represented women-led companies.

“This enrollment is made of mobile safari and travel agencies, accommodation facilities and tourism suppliers balancing the company sizes both from micro scale to medium scale,” he said.

One beneficiary, Mr Tshepiso Robert of Siso Textiles said through the Tokafala programme, his company was able to identify a market at Debswana Mine to supply them with personal protective equipment on a three-year contract. Ends