12 May 2019

The Khawa Dune Challenge and Cultural Festival has grown in leaps and bounds registering more spectators compared to its inaugural years.

This was said by Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) chief executive officer, Myra Sekgororoane during the Khawa Dune Challenge and Cultural Festival Polka Night on May 11, which was attended by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, Vice President Slumber Tsogwane, former president, Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama,  ministers and senior government officials.

Sekgororoane said this year marked the eighth year the event was held through collaboration between Ministry of Youth Empowerment Sport and Culture Development, BTO, Botswana Motorsport and the Kgalagadi District.

In 2018, she said it had recorded 8 000 spectators as compared to    6 000 in 2015 and 3 700 in 2014.

Thus, she said the event should now be featured as a regional or international event.

Further, she explained that the event had helped Botswana’s tourism product diversification strategy beyond the wildlife and the wilderness that the country was renowned for.

“I speak of diversification in terms of geographic location to grow tourism. Sport tourism grows every year with motorsport events increasing in numbers.

This increased activity plays a positive role in growing our economy and in creating employment opportunities for the various geographical locations,” she said.

The event, she said contributed immensely to the business sector.

“An economic survey was done where sales of various businesses in the entire Kgalagadi district increased from P2.1 million on a normal weekend to P7.7 million on the weekend of Khawa Dune Challenge and Cultura Festival.

A survey was done at fuel stations, wholesale shops, tuck-shops, accommodation facilities and other sectors. On average within the catchment area, business registered a 53 per cent increase in sales with the Khawa Dune Challenge and Cultural festival,” she said.

Delving further into the benefits of the event, she said a total of 19 projects had been tendered to the private sector amounting to P1.9 million.

As a result, she called for the Khawa Development Trust to tighten its involvement and prepare to run the event in future.

She said Kgalagadi District had greater potential for tourism boasting of abundance of natural resources and unique landscapes. She said the region was endowed with national parks, game reserves, small game farms, veld products, smallstock and unique shrub savanna vegetation that stands out in the region.

Sekgororoane stated that the  event created multiple economic avenues where sport and cultural tourists, who had ascended to Khaw, had taken excursions to other areas in the country.

She said when people travel they create an economic impact in their point of departures right up to their point of arrival.

She added that BTO had devised a privatisation and economic empowerment strategy where the people would be empowered through privatisation of some of the events to the private sector such as Race for Rhinos and The Heart of the City, Carnival in Gaborone adding that tenders would be up very soon. Thus, she said more needed to be done by the local private sector to ensure that they provided the best quality of services and products needed for the event as they continued to outsource from across the border.

“The private sector should seize these opportunities in these gaps and be able to supply,” she said.

Minister for Environment Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Kitso Mokaila encouraged suppliers to provide the best quality to enhance the tourism sector. He said those who were given the responsibility to deliver should do so without compromising standards.

Thus he said BTO and Botswana Bureau of Standards should closely liaise to ensure high quality products and service delivery in the tourism sector.

He encouraged trusts to take full responsibly and be ready to effectively run tourism events and activities on their own as skills were imparted in them.

“Mathata a mangwe a rona ke di trust ka gore di batla gore di tshwarelwe lebogo ruri. Ga re batle go tshwarela di trust mabogo ruri, re batla go ba tsenya mo kgwebong re ba ruta tsamaiso re bo re ba tlogela,” he said.

He said when trusts were strong, they should be in a position to run events on their own hence tourists would continue to visit their tourist attraction sites throughout the year without having to wait for one major event. ENDs