Botswana’s tourism industry is estimated to have lost over P6 billion since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
The Tourism Ministry Permanent Secretary, Dr Oduetse Koboto recently told the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the accumulated losses also include job losses. Botswana’s first reported positive COVID-19 cases in March 2020 resulted in the closure of tourism enterprises. By the end of April 2020 when cases were on the rise, at least 90.7% of Botswana’s tourism facilities were closed, with only 9.3% open to guests. The country also closed 21 out of a total of 31 ports of entry, with the 10 remaining ports strictly open for trucks delivering essential goods into the country.
In April 2020, state-owned Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) estimated that the total revenue loss would run into billions of Pula due to cancellations and rescheduled bookings anticipated at that time.
Meanwhile, the ongoing vaccine rollout remains the pillar of hope for the sector’s recovery but challenges remain, with the sector expected to remain in survival mode until the country acquires herd immunity.
“With the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, we expect an accelerated recovery of the tourism sector as movement restrictions, both locally and internationally, are relaxed,” Koboto told the PAC last week.
Dr Koboto highlighted that the Ministry of Tourism had revised the agro-tourism guidelines to promote the use of agricultural land towards tourism ventures. The revised guidelines were launched in June 2020 to facilitate the development of tourism in agricultural land. He told the PAC that the revised agro-tourism guidelines would, among others, encourage Batswana to use their land for alternative income-generating activities and promote citizen participation in the tourism industry. It has also emerged that to date, there are seven licensed Agro-Tourism operators, with 15 more due to follow suit.
In both 2020 and 2021, domestic tourism has mitigated the impact on jobs and businesses in some destinations in northern Botswana. However, pundits maintain that tourism would only bounce back when international tourism returns.
Source: http://www.sundaystandard.info/covid-19-sponsored-tourism-sector-losses-pegged-at-p6-billion/
