World Cup 'curse in disguise' for local tourism

MBONGENI MGUNI
Staff Writer | Friday June 11, 2010 00:00

There is normally an upsurge in tourist arrivals and revenues between May and September, a time known as the peak period when conditions for activities such as hunting, photography and safaris are at their optimum. Traditionally, Botswana's prime attractions in the west receive the bulk of the country's estimated 1.5 million annual tourists during this period.

Major tourism markets include the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and China. As Botswana does not have a direct flight to these destinations, the OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg has become a hub for the country's tourism sector.

At this week's Tourism Pitso, stakeholders said tourists were staying away from Botswana's prime attractions this time around because of increased airfares to Johannesburg. Others pointed out the general congestion in air travel as the reason for omitting Botswana from their travel plans this year.

Earlier in the year, South Africa's Competition Commission launched an investigation into possible price collusion between that country's major airlines as fares shot up ahead of the world's biggest sporting extravaganza. The representative of Camps and Lodges category at the pitso, Sarah Humble, said the World Cup had dealt the tourism industry a second blow after the effects of last year's global recession. 'The World Cup has seen to a drought in our business because of the increase in air fares,' Humble said. 'The whole volcanic ash cloud problem simply worsened matters.'

Other operators said the World Cup was a curse rather than a blessing as its anticipated gains had instead been replaced by real losses. 'It has exposed our over-dependence on OR Tambo and the very urgent need for direct flights to our tourism markets,' said one.

'It has also reignited the perennial issue of liberalising our aviation industry. In the short-term, the tourism industry will under-perform because the World Cup comes when we are only just emerging from the recession.'

The chief executive of Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO), Myra Sekgororoane, acknowledged that the premier football event was not turning out to be as brimful of benefits as anticipated.'We have received word from our operators that infact, there could be disadvantages arising from the World Cup,' she told a media briefing ahead of the pitso. 'This is particularly because of the rise in airfares and congestion.'

Urban tourist facilities, including hotels and lodges, are also experiencing the unseasonal dry spell. BTO revealed last week that FIFA subsidiary, MATCH, had met with limited success last year when it approached local facilities to block book rooms for fans coming to the World Cup.

'We received intelligence from Germany when we visited years ago asking how they had tapped into the opportunities of the 2006 World Cup,' Sekgororoane said.

'The intelligence indicated that MATCH had block booked many rooms, then cancelled at the last minute, leaving hotel, lodge and guesthouse operators with losses.

'We facilitated for MATCH to meet our local operators last year and only one facility made arrangements with them. We understand South African operators are also crying foul at the moment because MATCH has cancelled bookings at the last minute.'

The Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Kitso Mokaila, corroborated: 'The Germans told us that we should not commit to MATCH because when the tickets don't sell that well, MATCH will cancel. This has happened in South Africa. Airfares have gone up and coming to Botswana has become more expensive. At the beginning, this World Cup was to have been an African event, but it quickly became a South African event.'

The local tourism sector hopes to rebound from the World Cup and focus on Christmas and New Year packages. Full recovery is not expected until next year.