Over 800,000 Batswana visit SA per year

Speaking at a press conference to mark celebrations of SA Tourism Week at the South African High Commission in Gaborone yesterday, the Regional Director of South Africa Tourism, Phumi Dhlomo, described Botswana as a crucial niche market that contributed a lot of volume to SA tourism.

Dlomo said statistics showed that many visitors from Botswana were repeat visitors who had visited the neighbouring country more than 10 times.  However, numbers of visitors from Botswana declined in 2008, probably owing to the economic downturn.