It has been four years since the first installment of the Christmas holiday package whose aim is to sell Maun as a destination of choice for the festive season. It has been the norm over the years that the majority of Batswana prioritise places such as Sun City, Cape Town (RSA) as well as Walvis Bay and Swakopmund (Namibia) as their destinations of choice over local destinations such as Maun, Kasane, the Okavango Delta and Chobe.
Through My Maun Experience the organisers hope to counter that. “They decry lack of entertainment as the cause and most would rather stay in and around Gaborone to avoid missing out on big events such as the New Year’s Eve festivals,” says Dose Mosimanyane (D.O.C Entertainment). He says it is also their belief that for people to appreciate and understand the need to conserve the country’s flora and fauna they need to be taken out there to personally experience nature’s beauty. “It is against this backdrop that we have decided to organise the My Maun Experience events with the view to among others, stimulate interest in local tourism, and promote Maun as a holiday destination of choice to foreigners and locals through sport, culture and entertainment,” Mosimanyane says, adding, we also want to economically boost Maun and Botswana by encouraging people to holiday and spend money within our borders.
We want to market Maun as not only a holiday destination but also a place of investment opportunities.” He says they also hope to help diversify the Botswana economy by using entertainment, sports and cultural tourism as alternatives to reduce reliance on minerals and beef.They will also use activities throughout the duration of the holidays to teach people about the natural beauty Botswana has to offer and the importance of conserving the environment, Mosimanyane says. He says they also hope to inspire other Batswana to host similar events around the country to restrain the number of people leaving the country during the holidays.“We cannot expect the public to conserve nature when they have little or absolutely no appreciation of it,” 63 Entertainment’s Bissau Gaobakwe told Lifestyle back in 2014. He said it was about time Batswana holiday makers started investing their money here at home and appreciating the beauty the country has to offer. “We have a jewel here that we are not even aware of,” he said.“Our strategy is to woo visitors especially the youth to Maun through a series of our events and to take advantage of other complimentary events that are organized by other promoters,” says Mosimanyane.He says they will organize tourism activities such as boat cruising, horseback safaris, camel riding, game drives, mokoro trips, helicopter rides and scenic flights for the visitors, once they are in Maun.“We will leave Gaborone on the 24th (December) to go and support the Home Coming Concert in Mahalapye then on the 25th December we will be in Marobela to visit Nijel Amos, help him with some of his social responsibility initiatives at home and support him and attend the Marobela Christmas Football Tournament. The plan is to do this every year going forward,” Mosimanyane says.
