The CEO of the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO), Tshoganetso Carl-Ponoesele has indicated that the 2023 ITB Berlin fair offered them a good opportunity to market and promote Botswana to the international tourism market.
At this year’s event, where she led her country’s public and private tourism trade stakeholders to exhibit at the fair, Carl-Ponoesele told VoyagesAfriq in an interview that ITB Berlin presented them access to the German market which is increasingly becoming strategic in accelerating their tourism recovery effort.
“Germany forms part of our top five markets. And it is the market that is quite important to us in terms of product offering. So, looking at Germany right now, strategically, we see recovery being accelerated because of our access through this fair,” she maintained.
The BTO CEO added that with the level of interest shown in Botswana, she hopes that the destination would attract more international visitors in the coming years.
Carl-Ponoesele explained, “So far, ITB Berlin has brought hope to us as Botswana tourism sector. We have also seen a lot of traffic coming to our stand, our operators are currently busy, even those who were not able to secure appointments pre-fair, they have already managed to meet a lot of buyers, and this is quite promising. We hope to see more arrivals in the next two to three years owing to this trade fair.”
