This is in fact a new kid on the block at the Botswana National Museum.
It is fashioned out as branding Botswana's pristine heritage sites for tourism and posterity. The project manifests itself in the development and marketing of nine heritage trails, which blend Botswana's pristine cultural and natural heritage sites (popularly known as monuments) with traditional tourism destinations like the magnificent Okavango Delta, the famous Chobe National Park and the deceptive Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). For the first time in its history, the Botswana National Museum is faced with a mammoth challenge of showing the relevance of heritage sites in various attempts to diversify the country's tourism sector. Sustainable development and management of the 9 prestigious heritage trails illustrated below offer a succinct view of how we can all utilise our heritage resources for economic empowerment of the country's citizenry.
In last week's edition I argued that there are quite a number of existing opportunities for developing the majority of Botswana's outstanding heritage sites for tourism. I also pointed out that such strategies can only function effectively when essential services are taken to the general populace. It is necessary to mention that part of the reason why the majority of heritage sites have remained forlorn, undeveloped, unknown and sometimes lost to us, has to do with lack of decentralisation of heritage management services in the country. The development of the nine proposed heritage trails offers a new strategy of taking essential services to the people by bringing various tourism stakeholders on board. When you develop a heritage trail, you must have a few points to consider. These include your target group: who is going to benefit from this heritage trail. You may also want to consider showing tourism related services such as hospitals, camping sites, filling stations, accommodation facilities, craft centres and entertainment areas. However, the most important thing to consider is the overall meaning or importance attached to such a heritage trail. Questions like what makes it unique and so important and whether it is worth visiting should be considered.
