14 Feb 2023

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism has commenced with the development of a Botswana Meetings, Incentives Conferences and Exhibition (MICE) strategy with the support of the European Union (EU).

Minister Phildah Kereng said in response to a question in Parliament on Monday that the objective of the project was to analyse sector landscape, challenges and opportunities, as well as infrastructure requirements to support its growth.

The project, she added, would include regional and international benchmarks and generate a strategy, action plan, dossiers for hosting and monitoring tools.

“It is anticipated that the project will be concluded by June.

While the process of the MICE Strategy development is ongoing, Botswana continues to host several activities, which are now a feature in the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) calendar of events as a new category to aid planning and value derivation by various stakeholders.

So far, 18 events have been listed in the calendar,” she said.

She added that the ministry, through BTO, continued to provide expert technical services to other government institutions and private sector to ensure quality assurance in execution and enhancing guest experience during these events.

Furthermore, she said BTO, in partnership with other key stakeholders, had embarked on a promotional campaign for service excellence within Botswana, targeting the tourism industry as well as all frontline personnel that interact and impact the guest experience.

“The campaign entails content development for airing on radio and television, customised engagements with the tourism sector on hospitality service standards, customer service promotion, and will run from March to September with post activity monitoring thereafter,” she added.

She also indicated that BTO had in addition concluded drafting of Grading Standards and Criteria for conference facilities, which would be submitted to Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) for technical review next month.

“My ministry is alive to the cash flow challenges faced by the tourism sector to improve service levels and meet expected star ratings, thus we continue to assist where possible to revamp their facilities and implement service excellence initiatives,” she said.

The minister also told Parliament that events continued to show signs of value derivation by the local economy and value chain beneficiation, in terms of revenue generation and branding of the country positively.

“My ministry, therefore, continues to lobby for events of international stature to be hosted in Botswana, while in parallel, sensitising the tourism industry on the packaging of these events and facilitating them to participate at international MICE fairs at subsidised rates,” she said.

Member of Parliament for Lobatse, Dr Thapelo Matsheka had asked the minister to give an update on progress made in setting up MICE and tourism hub notwithstanding the setting in of the COVID-19 pandemic. ENDS