WILD-BW: PUTTING OUR MONEY WHERE OUR MOUTH IS: DOES TOURISM REALLY MATTER?

“Mr. Speaker, tourism is already demonstrating its capacity to mobilize private investment and create jobs across the country. During the 2025/2026 financial year, Government facilitated the allocation of five (5) tourism sites and concession areas in Ngamiland and the Makgadikgadi National Park, attracting envisaged capital investment of P362 million. These projects are expected to create over 500 jobs and generate rentals for community trusts, directly strengthening local economies. In addition, the fast-tracking of eleven lease renewals covering 27 lodges in Ngamiland has unlocked further investment potential estimated at P800 million, while safeguarding more than 1,500 existing jobs.” Said the Vice President and Minister of Finance Ndaba Gaolathe in his typical sonorous almost apologetic voice last week as he presented the budget estimates for 2026-27.

 And then when it came to budget allocations, not a whisper about the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. As it turns out it is bundled together with other Ministries that didn’t have any mention in terms of specific budget estimates. I am not an economist, and perhaps I can be accused of bias when it comes to both tourism and conservation. But surely common sense suggests that your expenditure reflects where your interests lie.

It is not a secret that the tourism sector is a significant contributor to GDP. In fact as the mining sector continues to stutter and its volatility significantly damaging the economic health of this country, tourism holds steady. Yes there are concerning leakages as demonstrated at the recent Tourism Pitso. Much value still can and needs to be extracted from the sector. Which is why it would only make sense to be intentional about investment in the sector. But a cursory look at this year’s budget does not reflect that at face value.

We know that Botswana tourism is heavily reliant on wildlife. Managing these resources is a complex and costly exercise.  Recently there has been an outcry in the sector due to the hiking of access and other license fees related to tourism. This suggests that government is raising funds that would presumably go into the management of these resources such anti-poaching, access roads, communication, and infrastructure rehabilitation, administrative costs etc. In addition there has been an outcry about compensation for human wildlife conflict which is a major issue impacting on the sector. Nothing in both the recurrent and the development estimates suggests any serious focus on this sector. One of the concerns about the industry has been domestic air travel that seems to be a perennial failure that clearly is a weak link in the sector. One would have expected some robust push for air Botswana to transform into an agile trusted domestic and regional operator. The government must take the lead in this area.

The point is, government needs to demonstrate seriousness to prop up this sector. It starts with the budget. We are all aware of the reported depleted government coffers. But it is primarily when times are tough that you turn to your most promising assets.

The Ministerial budget proposals are yet to be presented of course and we wait to see what the Ministry of Environment and Tourism will bring to Parliament. But surely it would be very slim pickings that Minister Mmolotsi and his team would be expected to work with. At a time when there is vicious competition for the tourism dollars both regionally and globally, Botswana cannot afford to pay lip service to this sector. The Vice President’s budget speech, long as it was did not reflect this. For example, at paragraph 48, there is mention of a pipeline of twenty-one (21) high-impact projects that diversify products, deepen value chains, and expand employment. These are not explained nor valued. Hopefully we would get to hear more about them in the Ministerial proposals.

So if as the Vice President has declared that tourism has demonstrated its capacity to mobilize private investment and create jobs across the country, government must leave no stone unturned to support it. It must not just be a “by the way” in our budgeting exercise. Otherwise it stands the risk of being captured and warped by narrow interests.  Of course we want a private sector led economy. But government must lead the way in facilitating that. It starts with putting our money where our mouth is.