CAPE TOWN – The North West MEC for Tourism, Desbo Mohono has called on all Botswana product owners to partner with North West Tourism and its product owners in order to forge a formidable force in product placement and marketing to attracting more tourists into both countries.
Mohono was speaking to Botswana journalists from various media houses and Tourism product owners in Botswana during this year’s annual Botswana Marketing Campaign hosted by the North West Tourism Board.
She said that her presence in Botswana was to encourage partnerships and create a platform which will lead to growth within the tourism industry in both countries. “I am here with my department and our tourism board to instigate partnerships. I am saying let’s work together and grow this industry because it has the potential to create many jobs thus growing both our economy,” said Mohono.
“We appreciate Batswana as a huge market, this is why we are here every year, we need each other in making the tourism industry to work. We can’t as South Africa say we don’t need other Southern African Developmental Community countries, we need each other in order to make tourism work,” added Mohono.
The Deputy High Commissioner in Botswana Bulelwa Kiva, said that it was important to develop these partnerships and collaborations. She said South Africa and Botswana shared a lot of common practices in terms of heritage and culture.
“The people of Botswana and those of the North West is one people. We should not allow these border gates to prevent us from sharing good practices and creating partnerships. We share the same culture, language and most of them relate as well,” added Commissioner Kiva.
Gosego Motsumi, a journalist for The Botswana Gazette said that this was a good initiative for the tourism sector in the North West province. She added that her concern was that campaign normally takes place in the capital city of Botswana and does not spread to other parts of Botswana which is a disadvantage.
“You should reach out to other areas around our country, especially up north, you will be amazed at all the opportunities you will find there even making partnerships and collaborating with our tourism bodies to increase your footprint,” said Motsumi.
The Annual Botswana Marketing Campaign is a marketing activation where the North West Tourism Board seeks to effectively engage with all the key stakeholders within the tourism value chain general consumers. This activation takes about four days with various activities including a media interface, trade workshop and mall activation.