Former President Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama has called for a symbiotic relationship between host communities and the tourism product to further stakeholder co-operation.
“Attitudes toward tourism could become negative over time as tourism development increases if host communities perceive such development as not beneficial to them. This may result in product defacing, animosity towards visitors and general resistance to tourism advancement,” said Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama, Former President of Botswana at the Global Sustainability Tourism Council(GSTC) 2018 in Maun.
He said, “An increase in tourism always carries the risk of harming the very attribute that attracts visitors in the first place, as well as putting pressure on the local infrastructure eg. Roads, airports, water supplies and public services. This would than lead to a perception by communities that the inconvenience from tourism outweighs its benefits, eventually leading to conflict particularly with conservationists.”
According to Khama the world is endowed with great wildlife, wilderness and cultural resources that are the basis for tourist arrivals. It was therefore important to subscribe to biodiversity management and an approach with well co-ordinated environmental management plans.
According to the GSTC there were close to 1.4billion international tourists and 1.8billion are expected in 2030, in addition to some 5 billion domestic visitors.
New segments of populations from merging economies cross a border for the first time to spend their holidays and people in developed countries travel more often thanks to the decreasing costs of transport and the improved possibility to reach almost every corner of the globe.
GSTC officials contend 60% of animal population have disappeared since 1970, according to a recent report from WWF. 6 out of 10 mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have been wiped out by humanity in less than 50 years, leading to some arguing that it will lead to the annihilation of wildlife.
It is argued climate change is already causing catastrophic effects worldwide with 3 degrees of warming projected by the end of the century to cause irreversible damage to coral reefs. The oceans are polluted with plastic objects causing the deaths of 100,000 marine creatures and 1 million sea birds every year.
Luigi Cabrini, Chairperson for Global Sustainability Tourism Council(GSTC), said “We know however that sustainability is far from being integrated in the whole tourism chain and that the good practices are still the exception rather than the rule. Overtourism is a major problem today, and many voices are calling for a strop to tourism growth.”
He said, “A system to measure in a comparable way the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by transport and accommodation, is missing frustrating efforts to lead the tourism sector towards concrete mitigation targets. Small and medium companies often do not have easy access to innovations and training that could improve their management.”
According to official sources Botswana tourism contributed 11% of GDP and 7% of national employment, in 2017 and forms one of the country pillars of economic diversification.
