All evidence points to a decline in popularity of the country’s flagship 1000 Toyota Desert Race.
This should be a cause for concern, not just for the authorities but for all Batswana who had hoped that tourism would be used to grow the economy and help wean it from what has been a devastating reliance on minerals.
One does not have to churn out statistics to prove that The 1000 Toyota Deseret Race is now attracting much fewer people than was the case, say, three years ago.
And it should not be like we do not know the reasons behind this decline.
This decline is a result of a failed leadership. Those entrusted to lead us in the sector of tourism have let us down.
And we should not wait any longer to call on them to up their game.
Just like the country’s overall tourism strategy, the Desert Race has had no branding attached to it.
And, as it is, marketing has been left to fate.
No attempts have been made to empower communities along the path of the race to embrace the event as an opportunity for themselves, their livelihoods and/or their businesses.
The upshot of it has been that, at best, communities along the path of the race continue to be outsiders and at worst outright protagonists hostile to the event since they view it as an unbearable nuisance they are annually forced to put up with, bringing destruction to their livestock, their environment, their serenity and indeed their way of life.
The decline in 100 Toyota Desert race has been long in coming.
In fact, it should be viewed against the backdrop of a broader overall tourism strategy of the country.
The decline of the flagship Toyota Desert Race should be viewed in the context of overall failure by Botswana Tourism Organisation to continually innovate and modernise the country’s tourism potential.
Rightly and fairly, questions can be asked just what has Botswana Tourism Organisation done to try and improve, grow and make the Desert Race more appealing beyond just the inner core of enthusiasts that had always been a part of the event long before BTO was itself created?
What international marketing efforts have been put in place by Botswana Tourism Organisation to make sure that taking advantage of the existing infrastructure of the race, a wider audience was created not just in Botswana?
It is not an exaggeration to say that whatever efforts the Botswana Tourism Organisation has brought into effect their net effects have been that of stifling growth of the Race, making it less exciting and overall putting off people who over the years had braved and put up with bitter cold of the winter season if only to be participants of this flagship car racing event.
Business people involved in tourism consistently talk of how it is no longer to them whether Botswana Tourism Organisation is a regulator or an implementer of Botswana’s overall tourism strategy.
From operators’ point of view, the lines of responsibilities between BTO and the Department of Tourism have been terribly blurred.
And, again, there is a reason for it.
After being given the power and prestige they craved, Botswana Tourism Organisation now does not know what to do with that power. In fact, from the look of things they are obsessed with it and are from time to time abusing it.
In a very big way, Botswana Tourism Organisation has against all the tenets for which it was created, turned itself into both a barrier and obstacle against tourism growth in the country ÔÇô and this is true for both international arrivals as well as the domestic tourism segment, which on account of BTO failures has consistently not been availed with information on what options the country offers other than the prohibitively expensive Okavango and Chobe tourism enclaves.
Those in the Board who are supposed to be giving strategic direction should be ashamed of themselves for presiding over the death of an industry that had so much potential.
The executive management itself does not seem to be conscious let alone awake of what is expected of them.
Theirs has been a journey of empire building, putting and investing excessive efforts in setting up luxurious offices all over the country while doing absolutely nothing to raise the profile of tourism operators by linking them with prospective tourists and package holiday makers outside the country.
This has undermined the long-term viability of Botswana’s tourism industry, as so clearly shown by declining arrivals and participation surrounding 1000 Desert race which only a few years ago was a boon and immensely promising flagship around which to build the country’s overall tourism strategy.
Increasingly, tourism all over the world is about entertainment.
On that note, it is time we reflected as a country whether our excessive regulations, including but not limited to alcohol consumption, are helping the growth of tourism.
Instead of making it easy for tourists at the 1000 Desert race to enjoy themselves, Botswana Tourism Organisation has kind of turned itself into an extension of a police force that restricts and regulates people’s behaviour.
People no longer have the freedom to decide where they can camp.
And these are people who we want and for whose money we are competing with other countries that are much more innovative, much more flexible and much more accommodating in their reception and treatment of tourists.
