Poverty or riches: who benefits from the booming tourism industry in Botswana?

ABSTRACT

Botswana is a key tourism destination in Southern Africa mainly because of the rich wildlife resources and scenic beauty it sustains. Since the 1990s, the growth of wildlife-based tourism in Botswana has stimulated the development of a variety of tourism infrastructure and facilities. This paper asks if these qualify as sustainable tourism. Using both primary and secondary data sources, the study reveals that foreign-owned safari companies and investors dominate Botswana’s tourism industry, leading to the repatriation of tourism revenue, domination of management positions by expatriates and lower salaries for citizen workers. Tourism also fails to significantly contribute to rural development in Botswana due to its weak linkages with the domestic economy. Promoting more inclusive and beneficial policies and strategies would allow tourism to become more sustainable, making a significant contribution to local development, and allowing citizens to finally see real benefits from an industry which is sustained by their local environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Political economy
• tourism
• sustainability
• poverty
• international and domestic tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Joseph E. Mbaiwa is a Professor of Tourism Studies at the Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana. His research interests are tourism development, conservation and rural livelihood development.