WILD BW: THE TOURISM STATS DASH BOARD-THE LONG AWAITED MISSING LINK

Kenneth Setimela: Co creator of the Botswana Tourism Statistics Dash board.

Oshinka Tsiang

The Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB), holds its annual conference tomorrow (Wednesday 23^rd April) in Maun. This is the most important event in the industry’s calendar where stake holders take stock and reflect on the status of tourism in Botswana. For the first time this year the industry is able to benefit from availability of data courtesy of a tourism statistics dashboard which was launched in Gaborone last week. This is a digital tool which will enable anyone anywhere in the world to get update information about most aspects of tourism in Botswana. Developed with the help of the Japanese government, the dashboard covers a variety of data including visitor’s numbers, their origin, the most visited places, the various services performance, ownership structures and contribution to GDP. It is a user friendly and easy on the eye platform that lets you know where most of our visitors come from, which is the most active port of entry, the various room rates, level of activities at various heritage sites etc.  The industry has long waited for such a tool which will certainly enable informed decision making for consumers, business, policy makers, investors, event organizers, researchers and others. For now however, it does not tell us a lot about local tourists. But as the industry and the department of tourism celebrate this milestone there is some trepidation regarding sustainability of this key resource. You see, in today’s connected world, a dash board of this nature is the first point of call for anyone wishing to visit Botswana for whatever reason. Which means continuous availability of the service is crucial, data integrity is paramount and speed of access non-negotiable. It is a tool of competition for the global tourist. Any unresolved glitch could mean the difference between coming to Botswana and going elsewhere.  But knowing our “system is down” mantra, the first course for concern is keeping the system alive. As it is, the Statistics office is the access point to the dashboard. It is a logical decision considering they are the custodians of national statics. However when you consider the fact that tourism is about business and business is a twenty four our affair, the ideal situation would be to have an independent custodian of this critical tool, led by the industry itself. For now the responsibility is with the Botswana Tourism Organisation, a government entity. Not to cast any aspersions on BTO, but they may not possess the nimble footedness to ensure the dashboard is up to date. They may not have the capacity to enforce compliance in providing necessary data or even capacity to verify the integrity thereof. Additionally, with government’s belt tightening status, there may not be enough resources to fully support the dashboard, let alone sustain its growth as it must. The other source of concern is the mobilization of stakeholders to provide necessary updated data. Without any compelling regulations, businesses  are not be obliged to prioritize data gathering and sharing for purposes of feeding the dashboard. Thus it is important to re-look at licensing conditions and renewal conditions to ensure that operators of all sizes and types provide the data.

While the dashboard benchmarks on others across the region, it still lacks more useful features that would be useful for entrepreneurs and investors. For example it does not give us data on how the different services interlink in business relations. This would help us understand what percentage of the total tourism returns accrue to citizen business or remain in the country versus going out.  Such disclosure could have the effect of compelling businesses at the top end of the tourism value chain, which is predominantly foreign owned, to prioritize procurement of services from citizen owned operations. As it is, these top end businesses either play across the whole value chain and thus undercut citizens, or have partnered with international franchises that they use for services that they do not offer. Citizen operators such as self-drive businesses and boat ride companies are confined to literally depending on scraps. Often it gets so ruthless that they are forced into deals by the big lodges to provide their services at costs. An index that compels these lodges to reveal data on service links would enable informed investment and easier access to funding. After all the dashboard is primarily meant to help innovative decision making to support the objective of making tourism a catalyst for economic transformation. For purposes of more visibility there is need to ensure a plurality of access points and not just through the Statistics Botswana portal. After all the data used is gathered from other sources and access does not compromise it in anyway. To allow multiple access points would enable more traffic to the dashboard and more potential tourists.

But it must be said that this dashboard is truly a welcome development in driving the industry forward. It is the missing link in the sector. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism, especially the Department of Tourism are to be commended for this achievement.

FYI: To learn more on this dashboard, tune in to WILDBW podcast on YouTube where we have a conversation with the creator of the Dash Board Motshidisi Kenneth Setimela.