The Botswana government has announced new tourism rules designed to encourage local citizens to become more involved in the tourism industry, especially at ownership and management level.
The announcement was made in the Government Gazette on December 30, 2011, and stated that, “guest houses (except corporate guest houses), mobile safaris, mekoro, motorboats, tourist transfers and camp and caravan sites are now reserved for Botswana citizens and companies wholly owned by citizens.”
There is a large foreign ownership of tour operator companies in Botswana and Tourism Update spoke to some key industry players.
“The undertaking has been in the pipeline for a long time, so this decision is not a surprise to anyone. The reason for the decision is essentially to assist small to medium-sized businesses break into the tourism industry. These enterprises do not require large capital investment, thus fall within the spirit of citizen economic empowerment,” said Grant Woodrow, Managing Director of Wilderness Safaris Botswana.
&Beyond Regional Director, Jason King, said: “We welcome this initiative by the Botswana Government, which will encourage citizen investment into tourism. All legislative changes have been made with existing operations in mind and will not affect existing operations, particularly camps and lodges. Whether or not existing licences can be transferred with the sale of a company is not entirely clear, but we trust that the Government of Botswana will continue to support all investors in a fair and impartial manner while ensuring that the best interests of Botswana are also served.”
“The decision should not negatively impact existing tourism businesses as the ruling will only affect new tourism enterprise licences and, hopefully, will not seriously affect the opportunity for future foreign investment in tourism in this country,” said Woodrow.