Tourism: What Botswana has to offer

Business visitors to Botswana should take advantage of the dramatic scenery and wildlife. Though it competes with the other major tourist countries on the African continent, Botswana remains a unique tourist destination. The scenery ranges from the crystal clear waters of the Okavango Delta to the harsh wilderness of the Kalahari Desert, from the surreal, sunbaked saltpans of the central Kalahari to the game rich Chobe National Park. It boasts majestic rivers and unspoilt wilderness, under endless skies in the heart of Africa. Government welcomes environmentally sensitive investment in up market tourism.

Botswana is a relatively unexplored and unexploited paradise offering a profusion of wildlife in an unspoilt environment. It has Africa's largest herds of elephants and all the other big game animals, including the spectacular predators — lions, cheetahs and leopards. There are up to 600 different species of birds many of which can be observed in the Okavango or along the waterways of the Chobe, Linyanti and Okavango rivers.

The Okavango's clear floodwaters spreading through flood plains, shallow reed beds, lily ponds and papyrus swamps are unique in Africa, indeed in the world. The visitor can glide silently through the clear waters in the traditional mokoro canoes and watch the birds and fish and the game as it comes down to the waters to drink.

In the Okavango Delta the vast silence is broken only by the gentle splash of the polers and the scuffle of small creatures in the papyrus reeds. Tropical fish flash past in the clear waters to avoid the malachite kingfishers. Birds are everywhere from the majestic fish eagles, exotic herons, brightly coloured bee-eaters and even rarities like the slaty egrets and Pel's fishing owl.

In more than a third of Botswana, roughly the size of Germany, the game roams freely across the desert, between the official reserves and the huge concession areas. Over 37% of the total land area is given over to wildlife management and conservation.

Botswana is also an archaeological treasure trove. Its history goes back to the Stone Age. More than 2000 archaeological sites have already been identified, with only 100 so far excavated. Yet history lives on through the San people (earlier known as Bushmen) who left their delicate art on rock faces in many parts of the country and their tools scattered across the Kalahari basin. The San still live and hunt in parts of the Kalahari.

Botswana is a peaceful country where the people and government welcome and appreciate foreign tourists, yet they are determined to preserve their animals and environment for future generations. The emphasis is on up-market tourism. The standard of accommodation at the game lodges and luxury-tented camps is universally high. The game viewing is easy. Botswana provides the most discerning tourist with the holiday of a lifetime.

Government policy is to encourage high-value low-density tourism while conserving the environment. It also wants local communities to benefit directly from tourism in their areas so that they can appreciate the advantages that tourism brings. It aims to bring the greatest possible net social and economic benefit to the Botswana people while preserving the scenic beauty, the wildlife, the local ecology and culture.

Hence the government expectation that investors in lodges and campsites cooperate with the local communities by assisting them with projects that are of direct benefit to the local people.

The people have got the message and are generally friendly towards tourists and understand the advantages of protecting their animals and environment though their interests as cattle farmers often conflict with the free movement of game over more than a third of the surface of the country.

Given these goals and objectives the government is keen to encourage investment in top quality tourism. It recognises the enormous potential and growth of world tourism that is expected in the first decade of the new millennium, but it wants all development to go ahead on an environmentally sensitive basis.

There is opportunity for investment not only in hotels, lodges and campsites but in the whole tourist infrastructure. Remote sites need to be constantly supplied with food and equipment. Transport of visitors by plane, helicopter and by road needs constant improvement. New sites need to be built. The challenges are endless.

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