Casting the tourism net wider
Lewanika Timothy | Monday May 6, 2024 06:00
The industry is beaming with hope that there is more traction being made in extending the spread of tourism to other parts of the country. However, there are seemingly insurmountable challenges the industry faces ranging from climate change to the uneven playing ground against locals and more recently international political pressure.
As delegates pressed into the village of Maun, the administrative centre of Ngamiland last week, it was clear that this year’s HATAB annual conference would be dominated by talk on how to manoeuvre the changing landscape of tourism.
For the people of Ngamiland, tourism is not a holiday activity like it is for other people from all corners of the country and industry. It is how the people of Ngamiland feed their families. It is their culture and tradition. In fact, it is the blood that flows in their veins.
Tourism in Botswana has framed itself around the awestriking Okavango Delta, which is an oasis of perennial water flowing from the Angolan highlands. The Delta is a haven to one of the world’s most diversified arrays of species, both flora and fauna. So what humans call tourism is a lifeline for these species. What we regard as tourist sites is their habitat.
According to entrepreneur, Charles Tibone, chairperson of Motor Holdings, the time has come for Botswana to look beyond the traditional tourism heartland in the North West and traverse new untapped territories.
Tibone is of the view that Nata and the whole of the Tuli Block present a fresh chance for Botswana tourism away from the Okavango Delta.
“We should focus on more concessions around Nata, which is the meeting point of all birds in Botswana's ecosystems,” he told the HATAB conference. “It is sad that the Tuli Block is an undeveloped tourist area and right across the border you look at the Madikwe Game Reserve and compare it to our side of the border just a few kilometres away.”
According to Tibone, the nation has also been dragging its feet to expand beyond the usual game drive and boat cruise offering. Rather the country should move towards incorporating its cultural events and festivals as part of the tourism offerings in villages and other centres.
“We should ask ourselves how much time people who come to Ngamiland for tourism, spend in Maun as opposed to time spent in the Delta. “You will see that we are losing a lot of money. “If cultural festivals and events were occurring in villages like Maun, people would have more to do in Maun after they leave the Delta,” he said.
Traversing Maun, one can understand where Tibone is coming from. The village is pale and relatively under-developed. The mighty Okavango waters are shadowed by the dry land and under-development of the community they have a rich cultural heritage to share but probably tell it as folk stories to their children who earn a pittance working in safaris around the region.
For environmental specialist and Ngamiland-born and bred biologist, Mpho Tiego, tourism in Botswana remains beyond the reach of locals and that should be the first point of departure in solving the sector’s problems.
To Tiego, the people of Ngamiland have resorted to practices that are not inherently their culture just to earn from what they see as an industry slipping through their fingers.
“The tourism value chain does not benefit the locals. “Even when you talk about things like trophy hunting, people in Ngami support it because it’s the only way they think they can benefit from hunting and tourism,” he said.
For President Mokgweetsi Masisi, the development of the National Tourism Strategy and Master Plan of 2023–2033 will usher in a broader understanding of tourism that will give leeway to more players in the economy, allowing for a broader understanding of the industry.
“The implementation of the 10-year Strategy will enable the broadening of the tourism base and product diversity,” he told the conference. “This will also usher in the improvement of other key areas of economic growth, such as nature conservation, culture and heritage, and agriculture, thereby, promoting value chain growth.” “Development in the eight tourism areas will also set aside land parcels for individuals, communities and companies to invest in and develop business ventures. “Some notable tourism ventures that will be pursued include cultural tourism and Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exposition markets.”
Preceding the conference, Botswana’s tourism industry had received international attention from the United Kingdom’s proposed legislation seeking to ban the importation of legally obtained wildlife trophies from Botswana and other African countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Tanzania, and South Africa.
The bill poses challenges for Botswana, as the European Union trophy hunting market including the UK comprises 30% of demand, while the USA market is the largest at 70%. If the bill passes at the House of Lords, what are the implications for conservation and rural livelihoods?
If this bill can pass, it will compromise the livelihoods of rural communities living in wildlife areas. As a result, both the Government of Botswana and rural communities are opposed to the bill mainly because of the loss of jobs and low income flowing to communities.
For tourism, which has previously clashed with trophy hunting in terms of national branding, industry players are putting the national interest first. HATAB chair, Joe Motse told the conference that the association and its members were fully behind controlled hunting in the country.
Whether the activity is hunting or tourism, the residents of Ngamiland want to see more benefits flowing their way.