GABORONE, Feb. 20 – After receiving nearly two million tourist arrivals in 2016, the government of Botswana is keen to further develop it tourism sector after realising its importance to the economy of Botswana.
Vanessa Satur, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), Program Manager said the tourism sector has not only provided jobs and improved livelihoods, but she said it has made a contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Government Revenues.
According to the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) prepared for Botswana by the UNWTO, tourism contributed directly to 3.7 percent of Botswana’s GDP and it was recorded that over 14 000 people were directly employed by the sector. Worldwide there are an estimated 235 million jobs directly linked to tourism, making tourism one of the world’s top job creators.
In 2017, Satur said tourism growth in Botswana and Africa has been persistent. She highlighted that in 2017 Africa’s growth is estimated at 8 percent, and was the strongest in the regions along with Europe.
The region consolidated its 2016 rebound and reached a record 62 million international arrivals. North Africa is said to have enjoyed a strong recovery, with arrivals growing at 13 percent while Sub Saharan Africa arrivals increased by 5 percent. This growth, Satur said is expected to continue to grow in 2018. Hence, Botswana wants its fair share of the growth.
UNWTO projects international tourist arrivals worldwide to grow at a rate of 4 to 5 percent in 2018. This is somewhat above the 3.8 percent average increase projected for the period 2010-2020 by UNWTO in its Tourism Towards 2030 long term forecast. Europe and the Americas are both expected to grow by 3.5 to 4.5percent, Asia and the Pacific by 5 to 6 percent, Africa by 5 to 7 percent and the Middle East by 4 to 6 percent.
Satur said these impressive figures indicate that tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing economic sectors estimated to represent about 7 percent of the global exports and 30 percent of the world’s exports of services. This she said, ranks the sector third most important after chemicals and fuels.
Botswana has seen the importance of improving the sector, hence its motive to improve the tourism statistics database, and implement an improved inbound visitor survey while providing indepth training to ensure ongoing data collection and analysis, through the Tourism Satellite Account. –EndItem-
