The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) is the foremost research and statistics organisation on tourism, conducting annual economic assessments on 181 countries around the world.WTTC's annual Economic Impact Reports analyse historic performance and provide projections for tourism and travel economic indicators over a 10-year period. For Botswana, the reports are critical as local statistics bodies do not compute travel and tourism earnings, jobs and/or economic impact in their research.
Released last week, the WTTC's Economic Impact Report 2012 for Botswana projects that travel and tourism activities directly contribute P3,25 billion to Botswana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year. The report reads:"This primarily reflects the economic activity generated by industries such as hotels, travel agents, airlines and other passenger transportation services, excluding commuter services. But it also includes, for example, the activities of the restaurant and leisure industries directly supported by tourists."
