Botswana has an unprecedented attendance at the ongoing Africa’s Travel Indaba in Durban, South Africa. According to Keitumetse Setlang, Acting CEO of Botswana Tourism Organization, the Southern African nation is represented by all aspects of the tourism and travel trade.
“We have 45 companies here from Botswana, representing different categories of operations: hotels, guest houses, travel agencies, mobile operators, the airline is here. We also have community trusts that are here to also to promote the various establishments, packages and businesses. If I would say, this is the largest to participate in Africa’s Travel Indaba ever.”
Keitumetse, who was speaking in an interview on the fringes of the ongoing Africa’s Travel Indaba in Durban, South Africa, noted that Botswana takes its tourism marketing seriously, hence the reason they have an unprecedented number of exhibitors from all sectors of the tourism industry at Indaba.
Keitumetsu said attending Indaba is to “prepare for the rest of the year, and the following travel seasons. And most of our events are usually in the first half of the year, with a few remaining, like the World Travel Market London at the end of the year. And what we also do as mentioned is events that stimulate travel in terms of people now attending those events.
“In addition to the events that we attend, like this one here, where we are now selling packages in the industry, it’s been a very busy year. It’s been a very pleasing year. Pleasing in the sense that we see operators in Botswana working very hard to stimulate recovery for people.
Asked about what they have done to support the SME sector, the Acting CEO noted that they have given incentives to encourage SMES to attend the trade shows. “We have subsidized SMEs to be a part of this event, and we have a good number of SMEs, over 60% of SMEs who are selling value here at Inaba, which is quite helping.
“What is particularly pleasing is that some of these SMEs are owned by youth, by young people and some of them are owning establishments that are not necessarily at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of value. They may be small in size, but value-wise quite sizable. So it is quite an interesting change, We would want to see them grow a lot more. And we are happy that they are able to take up a responsibility to attend events such as, you probably are aware that when they attend such an event, they contribute participation fee, which is obvious, like I mentioned, subsidized, but they also pay for their own transport and accommodation,” she added.
Keitumetsu noted that Botswana is working relentlessly to obtain full tourism recovery ahead of the planned 2025 period. “As you know, or so you’re aware, global data miners say the world would have gotten back to pre-covid figures in 2025. We are working towards shortening that to ensure that happens early 2025.”
“We are already counting beyond the numbers that we had obtained in 2019 and science points to an increasing or an improved trajectory in terms of arrivals in Botswana, which is quite pleasing. But this is not to imply any way that we do not have challenges,” she added.
Africa’s Travel Indaba is the leading travel trade show in Africa, owned by South African Tourism, with the specific objective of creating market access for the vast array of African tourism products and businesses.
The trade show exists to provide the ideal platform for African tourism exhibitors to showcase their offerings to international and local buyers, destination marketing companies and leisure tourism service partners. It is the most formidable platform on the continent for you to meet face-to-face with the most influential buyers in the world, and to gain access to Africa’s excellence and its endless possibilities. These are the business opportunities and quality connections that will shape Africa’s tomorrow.
The 2024 edition of Africa’s Travel Indaba is taking place in Durban, KwaZulu Natal Province from 13th to 16th May 2024.
