With the 2024 Africa’s Travel Indaba in Durban, South Africa set to officially open its doors today, the Botswana Tourism Organization (BTO) is gearing up to once again showcase its unique selling points as a premier destination.
Obviously, it has been a very busy year for the southern African tourism giant as it got the year in style with visible and source market activation with participation in ITB Berlin, and WTM Africa as it leaves no stone unturned to shore up numbers to the country.
This year, the Botswana Tourism Organization will be making its unprecedented showing the pan African travel showpiece for the 15th time.
Joining the country’s national tourism promoting agency will be 45 local businesses all specialising in inbound travel to Botswana including hotels, lodges, guest houses, tour operations, travel agencies, mobile safaris, community trusts and our national airline.
According to BTO Acting CEO Keitumetse Setlang, diversifying the tourism product is a key strategy for the BTO, with a particular focus on positioning Botswana as a MICE destination.
The team led by the Acting CEO will hold bilateral meetings with strategic partners and as well engage in B2B sessions with international buyers as well as participate in sessions to share some of the best practices from the country.
Keitumetse further stressed that BTO aims to surpass tourism numbers from 2019 by 2025.
“We are currently at 75% of the 2019 numbers, looking at extrapolated numbers. But the idea is to surpass 2019 by 2025; that is where the world is going, and we seem to be doing very well in terms of that. Our interest is to see us surpassing 2019 numbers, not just in terms of arrivals, but also in terms of tourism revenue and the increase in length of stay,” she said.
The Sundowner
Africa’s Travel Indaba will feature many exciting activities, especially the traditional sundowner, which offers an opportune platform to engage directly with suppliers and keystakeholders in the tourism. The activity will take place on Wednesday 15th May at the Durban ICC Room 12.
Overall, a total of 55 countries are participating in this year’s event including all newcomers.
In total, this year’s event will see more than 1,030 exhibitors showcasing their products and tourism offerings and more than 890 buyers attending the event from all over the world.
Visit the BTO stand at Hall DEC2, stand number B11, Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre (ICC Durban) for more information and meetings with the industry.
