BTO Gears For Virtual Travel & Tourism Expo
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday November 30, 2020 16:29
The BTTE, which has been held annually since 2013, is a business to business forum where global wholesalers and retailers meet with local tourism operators. This year, the three-day expo will be held under the theme ‘Let’s Explore’.
BTO reasoned that due to COVID-19 pandemic, it has refocused its approach to promote travel to Batswana through virtual platforms. “We are exploring technological advancements in support of the tourism industry now and beyond COVID-19,” the organisation headed by CEO, Myra Sekgororoane stated in a statement. The locally developed platform is web based and has a number of features that support private meetings, information exchange, high-level panel discussions and video presentation. The platform will allow the international and local participants to interact virtually.
“Only registered participants will have full access full access to the platform while general public will have limited access,” BTO added. The Expo has over the years experinced growth, with a number of countries expressing interest in it which proves BTO’s efforts to promote and market the country as a tourist destination are bearing fruit. To increase the BTTE’s global footprint, last year the BTO expanded its invitation to the Asian market whilst retaining the traditional source markets of Europe and North America. According to BTO, the Expo is the biggest undertaking of the year that recognises the importance of providing platforms for the private sector to do business for the year ahead.
For small and medium local businesses, BTTE is the only opportunity to meet and interact with large numbers of buyers. It allows hosted buyers to expand engagements with Botswana companies and diversify their tourism offering.