25 Aug 2020

The Rediscover Botswana Expedition crew arrived in Gaborone on Saturday after over 8 000km of experiencing Botswana.

When welcoming the crew, Botswana Tourism Board chairperson, Boitumelo Sekwababe, said the expedition highlighted Botswana treasures some of which were not yet known.

He said tourism was one of the sectors that drove the economy, adding that it was an industry that permeated the socio-economic life of the majority of Batswana linking all zones and providing livelihoods to all segments of the population.

Therefore, he said innovative initiatives such as the Rediscover Botswana  Expedition would continue to promote and keep Botswana tourism as a top brand on the global travel and tourism despite COVID-19 pandemic, which he said would require substantial changes in how society operated.

Additionally, he said the post COVID-19 thinking should not only be about recovering, but being able to create a better and sustainable destination position going forward.
He said BTO continued  to come up with initiatives to encourage more local travels.

In an interview, one of the crew members, Thalefang Charles, said their sole aim was to inspire Batswana to explore their country.  Charles said they observed that a lot of Batswana did not travel locally and their perception was that local tourism was expensive.

Charles said that they travelled with filmmakers and they gathered a lot to be used for video content.

He said their plan was to put together a documentary to showcase Botswana.

He further encouraged others to come up with initiatives similar to this expedition with the aim of exploring Botswana and inspiring Batswana to t embrace their local tourism.

Another member of the expedition, Sonny Serite said Batswana did not have enough knowledge about their country’s treasures.

Serite said Botswana tourism was not expensive contrary to what most Batswana believed.

Furthermore, he said he observed during the tour that only lodging was expensive, therefore he encouraged Batswana to devise cheaper means when travelling such as use of camping sites. “No amount of photography, literature or film can give you the experience of your country first hand,” stated Serite. ENDS