Domestic Travel Tourism Supplement

DOMESTIC TRAVEL

Supplement

The Ngami Times 22 - 29 March, 2024

Promoting Domestic Tourism in Botswana

The Ngami Times this week publishes this supplement on Domestic Travel, whose objective is to encourage citizens and residents of Botswana to travel within the borders. The supplement also seeks to assist would be domestic travellers with information on destinations and facilities available out there. The information in this supplement was provided by some operators and our Tourism and Environment Columnist PROFESSOR

JOSEPH MBAIWA

Domestic tourism is defined by the United National World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) as travel by residents undertaking tourism activities “within the country of

residence”. In this respect, domestic tourism can be referred to as part of “internal tourism” along with inbound tourism as consumption for both forms of tourism are taking place within the country. In the case of Botswana, domestic tourism thus comprises of the activities of the citizens and residents of Botswana travelling to and staying in accommodation facilities within Botswana and undertaking tourist activities inside Botswana. This should, however, be outside their usual environment for not more than 12 consecutive months for leisure, business, or other purposes. Domestic tourism in Botswana remains very low despite attempts made to promote

post the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, it dawned on Botswana that relying heavily on international tourists is not a sustainable tourism approach for the country and the tourism industry.

As a result, there were attempts by government through the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) and industry players through the Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB) to encourage domestic travel especially to wildlife based destinations, lodges and facilities in the Okavango Delta at rates designed specifically for locals. To date some citizens have taken cue and travel locally, and continue to visit and stay in the Oka-

vango Delta.

Domestic tourism in Botswana has a lot of advantages.

This is because domestic tourism can be used as a tool to eliminate local poverty, generate employment and economic growth, and alleviate upgrade infrastructure. For example, CEDA in Botswana is known for heavily funding local businesses such as lodges, B&Bs, shopping malls etc.

All these services are partly meant to promote local trade and benefit domestic tourists.

There is a boom in shopping malls in Maun, in addition to the tourism resort and gateway to the Okavango having over 30 small lodges.

All these facilities especially lodges are used by domestic travellers especially on week-

ends when people visit Maun for weddings, funerals, and sporting activities.

During the festive seasons of Easter Holidays in April, Presidents Holidays in July, Botswana Day in September and Christmas and New Year Holidays, accommodation facilities in Maun become over booked and shopping malls become crowded because of the high presence of domestic tourists.

Domestic tourism also has an advantage in that it is not necessarily susceptible to international shocks such as pandemics, wars and other outbreaks which often restricts international travel.

Promoting domestic tourism in a country is thus an excellent strategy to be adopted to mitigate against international shocks that can affect the economy.

Domestic tourism throughout the world is a predominant but it is an invisible portion of tourism industry. The bias on international tourism ignores most domestic tourists and their contributions. In addition, consistent data on worldwide domestic tourism are not so readily available. In Botswana, as is the case in many other parts of the world, domestic tourism statistics is wanting. However, indications are that the numbers of domestic travelling in Botswana is still lower when compared to international arrivals.

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Promoting Domestic Tourism in Botswana

From page 1

The tourism statistics 2006–2010 report notes that an estimated 2.1 million international tourists visited Botswana in 2010 against 1.2 million domestic visitors in the same period. Similarly, in 2019, a total of 2,360,834 non-citizens arrived in Botswana. Out of these 1,555, 399 (65.9 percent) were international visitors (tourists).

Domestic tourists or those visiting friends and relatives (VFR) purpose of visit represented 30.9 percent (480,927) of total tourists in 2019. In terms of expenditure, research has shown that VFR does not contribute much to the tourism economy when compared with international tourism.

For example, Botswana’s domestic tourists spending was P72 million on accommodations against P2.2 billion by international visitors which further signifies low contribution of the VFR market to the local economy in 2010. Research has established that in 2019, international tourists spent BWP 11 091.0 million (USD 1 000.3 million), accounting for 62.8% of total exports, and in 2020, international tourists expenditure was BWP 4 585.4 million (USD 413.4 million), translating to 33,6% of total exports, (a decline of 58.7%), while in 2021 the expenditure was at BWP 5, 710.0 million (USD 515.0 million), accounting for 26.0% of total exports; showing an increase of 24.6% from the year 2020 (WTTC, 2022).

Comparatively, domestic visitor expenditure in 2019 stood at BWP 5, 255.1 million (USD 474.0 million). In 2020 it was BWP 3, 826.4 million (USD 345.1 million) (a decline of 27.2% from 2019), while in 2021 it was BWP 4, 640.2 million (USD 418.5 million); showing an increase of 21.3% from 2020 (WTTC, 2022).

Between 2020 and 2021, both international and domestic tourists figures remained low because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in 2020, Botswana received a total of 358,225 visitors. This means that tourists and traveller arrivals declined by 80.4 percent (1,472,049) and 80.7 percent (2,087,077) respectively compared to 2018. In the same period, Botswana received a total 76,753 domestic tourists. While the numbers of international and domestic tourists remained low during the COVID-19 pandemic, such numbers in 2023 have also recovered to the 2019 figures. The lesson from COVID-19 pandemic is that domestic tourism can always be used to mitigate against international shocks that affect intentional tourism especially travelling.

Domestic tourism has does not necessarily enjoy the support of governments especially in rich wildlife destinations such as those of Southern Africa, East Africa, and Central Africa. Governments in these regions are pre-occupied in creating tourism infrastructure such as airports and road infrastructure to support the arrival of intentional tourists. Research has established that there is limited support for domestic tourism by governments not only in Botswana but around the world in general. This low support is attributed to the low contribution of domestic tourism to the economy of the country when compared to intentional tourism. Ghamire (2001) notes that governments in developing countries offer limited support to domestic tourism because domestic tourism and regional tourists have a low spending power compared with tourists from developed countries. This scenario is typical of tourists visiting the Okavango Delta. Most of the tourism facilities and services (e.g. lodges/accommodation, mobile safari services etc) prefer international tourists from developed countries when compared to citizen tourists. In this regard, tourism companies operating in the Okavango Delta is focused on receiving wealthy foreign visitors from developed countries and neglect or ignore the potential of mass tourism involving domestic and regional tourists. Domestic tourism in Botswana is further associated with challenges such as those of a lack of a diversified tourism product that would otherwise increase domestic tourism.

That is, the fact that Botswana’s tourism industry is predominantly characterised by a single wildlife product, high prices of services in the tourism industry especially in the Okavango Delta, the lack of planning for leisure travel by domestic tourists and a culture of low leisure travel are the most factors challenging the growth of domestic tourism in Botswana.

Domestic tourism product in Botswana is not well diversified and developed, however, there is room to improve it. There is need for a diversified tourism product in the country. For example, indicates are that domestic tourists prefer events such as Khawa Dune Challenge, Makgadikgadi Epic, Toyota Desert Race, and other cultural events such as Letlhafula, nightlife as well as sporting activities such as football, Kazungula marathon and so on. Infrastructure to support these events can thus be developed so is the entire MICE tourism (Meetings,

incentives, conferences, and exhibitions tourism). As a country, we need to develop a MICE strategy to promote MICE tourism which would otherwise promote domestic tourism as well.

Botswana also needs to adopt a diversified tourism approach moreso that the tourism industry is considered wildlifebased. The wildlife-based tourism approaches have been viewed as one of the reasons why domestic tourism and Batswana do not travel much within Botswana. Much of

the wildlife-based tourism is carried out in the Okavango Delta and Chobe areas and prices charged at facilities in the Okavango Delta are too high.

As a result, we need to consider making provision for concessionary rates for residents especially in the accommodation sector for those visiting facilities such as the Okavango Delta. Tourism operators may not be comfortable in lowering prices to accommodate the domestic market, however, statistics

show that there are a growing number of outbound leisure travellers to regional destinations such as Namibia, South Africa, Zanzibar etc. This indicates a market for leisure tourism products which can benefit from a diversified provision and better pricing at home which will lead to more benefits for Botswana in increased employment and addressing the seasonality issue. With a diversified tourism product, public awareness campaigns could then be done to sensitize the domestic tour-

ism market about the product offering within Botswana.

Finally, while Batswana promote domestic tourism when attending events such as Khawa Dune Challenge, Makgadikgadi Epic, Toyota Desert Race, and other cultural events such as Letlhafula, nightlife, sporting activities such as football, Kazungula marathon and so on, should be motivated to adopt the habit of travelling within Botswana to other areas such the Okavango Delta to enjoy the beauty of their country.

KER & DOWNEY BOTSWANA IS A NAME THAT IS – AND ALWAYS WILL BE –ASSOCIATED WITH EXCLUSIVE, TIMEHONOURED SAFARI EXPERIENCES. OVER FIVE DECADES IT HAS DEVELOPED INTO ONE OF BOTSWANA’S MOST ESTEEMED SAFARI OPERATORS, REPRESENTING LUXURY SERVICE AND PERSONAL ATTENTION TO DETAIL.

OKAVANGO

MOREMI GAME RESERVE -OKUTI

CENTRAL KALAHARI -DINAKA