The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Travel and Tourism Development Index indicated that the nascent post-pandemic recovery in the travel and tourism sector needs to be nurtured, as the gap between developing and high-income countries remains a concern.
The index, which measures a set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable and resilient development of the sector, has this year ranked Botswana at position 75 out of 119 countries covered.
Driven by the end of pandemic-related travel bans and strong pent-up demand, the WEF expects international tourist arrivals to reach pre-pandemic levels in 2024.
The report indicates that the contribution of the sector to global GDP is nearly at pre-pandemic levels.
The Middle East is reported to have had the highest recovery rates in international tourist arrivals (20 percent above the 2019 level), while Europe, Africa and the Americas all showed a strong recovery of around 90 percent in 2023.
However, the World Economic Forum says the uneven nature of the recovery, labour shortages, and supply and demand imbalances lead to travel price increases and service disruptions. The report says these have put pressure on destinations and businesses in the travel and tourism sector.
Botswana received a total of 248,946 international visitors (tourists) during the second quarter of 2022.
According to Statistics Botswana, these represented 88.2 percent of total non-citizen arrivals (282,220) the bulk of whom emanated from the SADC sub-region.
South Africa contributed 79,410, representing 37.8 percent of overall tourists from SADC countries.
For purpose of visit, In-Transit tourists represented the highest proportion of tourists, at 47.6 percent (99,986) followed by Business tourists at 19.9 percent (41,791), while Visiting Friends and Relatives tourists accounted for 15.8 percent (33,251) of all the tourist arrivals.
The WEF says Africa’s potential for travel and tourism development is influenced by several factors, including its notable price competitiveness and natural resources for tourism.
“However, considerable challenges still have to be overcome if the region is to produce favourable conditions for travel and tourism growth” the report highlighted.
“Regional policymakers and travel and tourism stakeholders need to continue the recent progress in creating more supportive business environments, improving health and hygiene conditions, fostering higher-quality human resources and labour markets and advancing ICT.”
While many African governments’ ability to support the sector is limited due to resource constraints, with the region’s already low scores for prioritisation of travel and tourism (government travel and tourism spending and data collection) falling even more since 2019 (-9.8 percent), the World Economic Forum asserts that non-spending policies can be pursued.
However, it has been noted that encouragingly, African states have made unilateral and multilateral strides in policies that should encourage cross-border travel and trade (the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Free Movement of Persons Protocol and Single African Air Transport Market), and drive currently low levels of intraregional connectivity.
It has been observed that, on average, African countries covered by the index have liberal visa requirements that can help facilitate cross-border travel.
However, the report states that the implementation of many policies aimed at greater international openness has lagged, with the region scoring low for the number and degree of liberalisation of air service agreements.
This can, the World Economic Forum, highlighted, make it more difficult for Africa’s already underdeveloped aviation sector to grow.
In Botswana, aircraft movements registered in Q4 2023 went down by 25.9 percent, from 21,906 movements recorded in the previous quarter to 16,223.
Statistics Botswana figures show that international aircraft movements declined by 20.8 percent while domestic movements decreased by 27.3 percent.
Air passenger movements recorded in this period stood at 198,134, a decrease of 14.0 percent when compared to Q3 2023.