The Voice (Francistown)
Zeph Kajevu
11 March 2008
Francistown — Easter holidays are around the corner, and Batswana are preparing to hit the road for a well-deserved first quarter break. And the South Africans are not wasting time. They are in town to sell their country.
Last week, it was the North West Province Parks Tourism Board and this week the mother body, the South African Tourism Board, will be in Gaborone, to sell the brand, South African, to the small but growing tourism market of Batswana.
The chief executive officer of the Mafikeng-based North West Tourism Board, Charles Ndabeni, sees Botswana as a natural tourism partner citing the common traditional, historical and cultural linkages in South Africa and Botswana. These elements, he said, promote bilateral co-operation in promoting tourism.
Launching his organisation's regional marketing strategy targeting Botswana in Gaborone last week, Ndabeni said the bilateral co-operation would enable each country to develop powerful brands, achieve economic prosperity and improve international outlook as a result of the abundance of tourist attractions. This is largely because the development of the full tourism potentials of the tourist attractions will draw large numbers of tourists from all over the world.
"North West Province is in Gaborone to form strategic partnerships with relevant stakeholders who are essential in the fulfillment of the tourism mandate through media publicity. South Africa, particularly the North West Province and Botswana, are linked by inalienable historical traditional and cultural ties, dating back over the years. The Setswana ethnic groups, who enjoy a fair geographical spread across both sides of the respective borders, are harness-able assets that can be developed as a tourism product for their benefit," said Ndabeni, adding that he was calling for bilateral co-operation "in promoting our relations and the tourism potential of Botswana and NWP if we are to survive in this competitive industry. Let us not be complacent about what we have achieved so far since our efforts are yet to yield the optimum results and other desirable outcomes."
He stressed that as a people-oriented industry in the face of globalization, tourism has become a powerful engine of economic growth for many countries in the developing world. He insisted that income from tourism would also benefit the South African and Botswana economies in foreign currency generation, job creation opportunities and poverty alleviation.
Ndabeni said that the high demand for business and leisure trips globally calls for aggressive infrastructure development and extensive promotion and publicity campaigns in order to attract a significant proportion of international tourists. A marketing strategy establishing of a tourist hub connecting Gaborone, Mafikeng and Zeerust, would go a long way in developing the destinations as one would provide overseas visitors with multiple options and encourage them to stay longer.
"When the strategic partnership between NWP and Botswana is formalized, the two destinations will become more dynamic and competitive. The promotion of the two destinations as one dynamic entity must be a collaborative effort that involves the active participation of government, private sector, stakeholders and both populations."
Some of the organisation's marketing strategies that would benchmark tourism sector business with that of the more developed counterparts would include creating a brand countering the negative perceptions about the region, increasing airlifting capacity between destinations and boosting tourism revenues from 10 per cent to 12 per cent by 2010.
Ndabeni said that since the nearest border linking both sides is less than 20 minutes drive from Gaborone, Batswana could enjoy enchanting Madikwe Game Reserve that has over 30 lodges, which were just another 20 minutes from the Tlokweng border post.
The River Walk Mall Exhibition, which was held concurrently with the media initiative, educated intending visitors on the products and tourism-based activities abounding in South Africa's North West Province.
The South African Tourism representative, Nothando Mathe, said that in the wake of the 2010 World Cup, the country had rolled out good customer care programmes to incumbents in the most crucial sectors dealing with visitors. Follow-ups are being made to ensure that the customer sensitization programme targeting immigration and customs officers including other front office personnel, who would handle the bulk of the visitors during the 43-day event, bears fruit.
Mathe said that as part of encouraging the participation of other regional players, SA Tourism would call on neighbouring countries that have the most popular tourism destinations such as the Okavango Delta and Victoria Falls, Botswana and Zimbabwe, respectively, to upgrade their tourist facilities and related services to enjoy a fair share of revenues from the 2010 World Cup entourage. "We should also gear up our services to go beyond 2010, to catch up with developments the world over. SATB is targeting four markets that include Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland with Botswana as the hub."
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