This is the article written by Kagiso Selabe:

“With the World Cup across the border in neighboring South Africa just less than [...]]]> The following is an article published in the Sunday Standard a Gaborone based newspaper. This article may be of interest to those who are coming to South Africa for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

This is the article written by Kagiso Selabe:

“With the World Cup across the border in neighboring South Africa just less than three months to kick off, local hotels, safaris, travel agencies, and other tourism affiliates are set to benefit, while others are already experiencing a surge in business due to the much anticipated tourist influx into the region.

The revelations were made by many of the participants at the Spotlight Travel workshop on February 18th at the Cresta Lodge in Gaborone. There has been a question lingering in many of Batswana’s minds as to what the Botswana Tourism Board was doing to benefit from the highly revered World Sporting event, which will be held on African soil for the first time.
However, many local tourism companies are exercising all strategies under their reach to have a share of the large cake, courtesy of the World Cup.

Malebogo Masole, the Front Office Supervisor of the Peermont Group, represented in Botswana by The Grand Palm in Gaborone and the Peermont Metcourt in Francistown, said they will directly benefit from the World Cup, come July.

She revealed that so far they have managed to strike an accommodation deal with one of the participating countries. She could, however, not reveal the name of the country nor the place where the team would be residing for security reasons.

Malebogo said in order to meet the FIFA accommodation standards they had to renovate their hotels in order to qualify and their hotels are so far fully booked for the months of May and June due to the flooding of international football lovers into the region.

Mpho Nkoane of Avis, a car rental service provider, said they too are beginning to feel a boom in business because of the World Cup. She said their business growth is witnessed by their almost all out rental of their cars. “To keep up with the coming demand we have decided to increase the fleet of our cars,” she said.

The nationally-owned air service provider, Air Botswana, is also set to profit from the coming World Cup as there will be a lot of tourist traffic passing through, or staying in Botswana in order to watch some of the games commuting from here.

The marketing executive of the latter, Daphne Osenkeng, said to keep up with the upcoming surge in tourists traffic, they have introduced a three times a day Johannesburg to Kasane flight as well as a Johannesburg to Francistown flight.

“To attract customers, we have not increased our fares and we have also introduced an online booking system for convenience; in that way, tourists can book as far as Europe.”

Simply Botswana’s Chief Executive Officer, David Kepaletswe, said his company, which provides a one online stop shop, is already starting to benefit from the World Cup as people are starting to book online. Kepaletswe said initially people were not into the idea of Botswana’s E-Tourism website, which offers customers an opportunity to view, book and buy Botswana’s products online. However, “ international tourists are booking in large numbers as they are used to the idea,” he said confidently.”

It is good to see that the Okavango Delta is at last receiving some form of recongnition as a unique natural phenomenon. This may also be of interest to our readers. The award will be announced in May 2010 and [...]]]> The following article was published in the Sunday Standard a newspaper based in Gaborone in Botswana.

It is good to see that the Okavango Delta is at last receiving some form of recongnition as a unique natural phenomenon. This may also be of interest to our readers. The award will be announced in May 2010 and we look forward to hear who the winner is.

Here then follows the article written by Kedidimetse Mpologeng on the February 7th, 2010.

“The Okavango Delta has been selected as one of the top three finalists in the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) prestigious 2010 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards.

The awards, which are an initiative launched in 2003 under the stewardship of the WTTC, serve to recognise sustainable tourism development in the selected areas.

Botswana Tourism Organisation Public Relations officer, Keitumetse Setlang, said the awards are also meant to demonstrate best practises, including helping to improve the livelihoods of communities and supporting the protection of natural and cultural heritage through sustainable tourism development.

She stated that the awards are presented in four categories namely: destination stewardship award, conservation awards, community benefit award and global tourism business award and also added that over 160 entries were received this year, from over 45 countries and a total of 12 finalists in all the four categories were selected by an international team of independent judges in each of the categories, with three finalists in each category.

“Furthermore, from all these entries, applicants included governments, NGOs, businesses, or community organisations on behalf of destinations and Botswana Tourism Board entered the Okavango Delta Ramsar Site (ODRS) in the Destination Stewardship category,” she said.

The Okavango Delta was officially designated as a Ramsar Site in 1996 by the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of wetlands which recognises wetlands of international importance.

Setlang went on to explain that the entry they chose for the ODRS is in recognition of the Delta’s contribution to the upliftment and advancement of tourism and the livelihood of not only people living around it, but that of the people of Botswana.

She further narrated that the Botswana government supports and encourages sound sustainable tourism development, with initiatives taken to develop policies to guide the development of the sector, with emphasis on the environment.

“Some of the instruments developed so far include the National Ecotourism Strategy, the Ecotourism Best Practise manual and the recent introduction of the Eco Certification Programme, which are all intended to guide and recognise efforts made in sustainable tourism development,” she said.

She further noted that having been selected as one of the top three finalists means a lot to the country.
“Having been selected means people out there recognise our efforts to use our natural resources wisely and also that the little we have benefits the nation,” she said.

She also indicated that it shows Botswana’s care for the environment is also distinguished and, most importantly, that it enhances Botswana Tourism Board marketing.

“If people outside the country, especially tourism near Okavango being mentioned they will familiarise with it through this award and might love to come see the beauty that is being talked about,” Setlang added.

She further stated that The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is the forum for business leaders in the Travel & Tourism industry with Chief Executives of some one hundred of the world’s leading Travel & Tourism companies as its Members and that WTTC has a unique mandate and overview on all matters related to Travel & Tourism.

“WTTC works to raise awareness of Travel & Tourism as one of the world’s largest industries, employing approximately 220 million people and generating over 9.4 per cent of world GDP and the winners of the Tourism for Tomorrow awards will be announced in Beijing in May 2010,” she added.”

It is interesting to note that there is now water in the Savuti channel again as well as [...]]]> It seems that 2010 will be a year of high water levels in all the naural water systems of Botswana. Below is a report in Edition 493 5 February – 12 February 2010 of the Ngami Times of Maun.

It is interesting to note that there is now water in the Savuti channel again as well as in the Savuti marsh. This channel dried up in 1984. Prior to this Savuti had polific wildlife as large numbers of animals congregated in this area during the dry season. At that time there was concern about the destruction of habitat mainly by elephants. This all changed after the channel dried up. Many animals moved to the Linyanti and Chobe areas. Due to the increased number of elephants in these areas severe loss of vegetation occured in these areas.

It will be interesting to see how the presence of water will affect Savuti in the coming year.

This is the article. “This year’s flooding of the Okavango River and delta could be massive judging from the amount of water that has already been recorded. Heavy and consistent rains in the Angolan eastern highlands – which are continuing – has seen river levels at Rundu, in Namibia, rise to 7.46 metres compared to the 2009 figure of 5.17 metres.

Latest levels show a rise of more than 8cm at Rundu since January 29 and 10cm at Mohembo – where the level that day was 2.53 metres. 

The figures for Rundu are 3 metres higher than is normal for a January 29 recording – on Friday it stood at 7.14 m after reaching 7 metres the day before due to heavy rains in the Nkurenkuru area.

This year’s flood, widely expected to come down the Thamalakane River through Maun in about May, could be bigger than the 2009 event, which saw huge amounts of water flooding surrounding farmlands and residential areas.

For the first time in years it also resulted in high inflows into Lake Ngami and the Boteti River.

Meanwhile at Kongola, on the banks of the Kwando River on the northern Botswana-Namibia border, water levels are standing at 3.06 metres, slightly less than last year. The Zambezi River at Katima Mulilo was 2.19 metres higher this week and steadily rising – the normal January figure is 1.48 metres.

The normally bone dry Savuti channels are also overflowing, with the marsh channels expected to contain water for at least six months. Water is almost surrounding the Savuti Scout camp.”