The Voice (Francistown)
11 March 2008
Francistown — Travel and tourism provides over 10 per cent of direct and indirect employment in the country's economy.
The sector, which according to a 2007 study has potential to grow by more than seven per cent annually over the next 10 years, contributes over 16 per cent of non-mining Gross Domestic Product.
These findings were of a study by the World Travel and Tourism Council that was engaged to establish the impact of travel and tourism on jobs and the economy of Botswana.
The Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Kitso Mokaila told Parliament on Wednesday that the study also established that the total travel and tourism will grow by five per cent annually, exceeding the southern African and global averages.
"In terms of the policy framework, the study emphasises the need to review the tourism policy and re-examination of the institutional structures and improvement in air transport services."
It also highlighted the importance of promoting tourism product diversification, improvement of allocation of land for tourism, encouragement of community based initiatives and building of capacity for the sector.
Mr Mokaila was requesting approval of P352 million for the recurrent and P283 million development budget proposals respectively for his ministry for the 2008/09 financial year.
He informed the House that the ministry's recurrent and development expenditure for this financial year stood at 79 per cent and 72 per cent respectively as at the end of February. He anticipated a 90 per cent and 88 per cent expenditure by the end of the current financial year.
The Minister appraised Parliament on projects and initiatives, which his ministry has undertaken including the regulation of the utilisation of wildlife and natural plant resources.
He said while his ministry has been successful in regulating the use of the animal wildlife resources, little has been done on the regulation of the use of natural plant resources.
Therefore, he said recent efforts to come up with regulations to control the use of resources were met with some resistance from some quarters.
"Many of these have entered the commercial market and should we do nothing, the biodiversity we are proud of will disappear as people adopt unsustainable harvesting methods of phane, thatching grass and medicinal plants driven by profit."
Also worrying the Minister is the emergence of unauthorised scrap metal dealers, who operate without licenses and contribute to criminal activities such as theft of copper cables.
To address the concerns, the ministry has increased its capacity to enforce the law by employing the "green scorpions" cadre, who will target hot spots to bring those contravening the law to book.
The Minister is also concerned by urinating in public and unauthorised use of open spaces by some churches for their congregations, which in many cases result in pollution of the environment, as ablution facilities are not provided for church members.
On efforts to control elephants, Parliament was told that a pilot project using chili was introduced in Ngamiland, Central and Chobe districts and the results were positive.
Most farmers, he said have been given chili seeds for propagation and the ministry will monitor its impact during the current cropping season.
Mr Mokaila also talked of legislation such as the draft Environmental Management Bill, which he said is still with the Attorney General's Chambers.
He said Cabinet has approved drafting of a bill to regulate the management of all plant related pieces of legislation by reviewing and merging the provisions under the Forest Act, the Agricultural Resources Conversation Act and Herbage Preservation Act into one law.
Review of the 1990 Tourism Policy has started while assessment and amendments of the Tourism Act of 1992 and the Botswana Tourism Board Act are at an advanced stage.
On Community Based Organisations, the Minister said various projects by the orgnisations generated P16.3 million in 2005, 60 per cent of which was from 11 organisations in the Ngamiland District.
This, he said demonstrates the huge impact of the influence of the wildlife sector in the organisations projects.
Mr Mokaila further informed Parliament that the movie based on the fictional character, Mma Ramotswe from the book series No.1 Ladies Detective Agency ,which is expected to attract tourists into the country, will premier in Europe on March 14 and in Botswana on April 11.
He also pointed out that grading of tourism facilities in the country has been completed with many of the facilities failing to meet even one star rating whilst those who qualified are at one and two star ratings.
"The industry will have to work harder to improve its services if we are to compete successfully as a tourism destination of first choice".
To create opportunities for investment in tourism facilities in other parts of the country, he said five lodge sites at the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park have been awarded to investors while 18 lodge sites were identified in the Central Kgalagadi, Makgadikgadi, Boteti and Chobe areas.
Minister Mokaila said tenders are being evaluated for seven of the sites. In addition a snake park at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve is under construction and the building of four hotels in Gaborone is expected to start during the course of the year.
To improve the quality of weather forecasts, the ministry will install a Numerical Weather Prediction, as well as a new software for television weather forecasts and a surveillance weather radar at Maun.
Among projects under implementation, he noted the Kasane landfill, which is scheduled for completion in July 2008, the upgrading of Gaborone Waste Water Treatment works expected to be complete in September 2009 to the tune of P192 million.
Another one is the construction of a regional landfill that commenced in August 2007 and expected to be complete in February 2009 to pave way for the closure of Gaborone landfill, whose rehabilitation is billed for the next financial year. BOPA
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