THEVOICEBW
A common socio-economic landscape and cultural heritage has made Botswana an ideal market for the north western part of South Africa’s tourism.
Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for South Africa’s North West Province, Desbo Mohono, says Botswana is an important market for her province and that they intended to promote their tourism packages to lure more visitors from Botswana.
Speaking on the sidelines of a media tour of her province at Lesedi Cultural village near Hartebeespoort, Mohono said her province receives a lot of visitors from Botswana on a daily basis hence the need to turn the province into a gateway for tourists.
“A lot of visitors from Botswana comer here for different reasons such as shopping, entertainment while others come here to visit relatives,” she said.
Mohono says they intend to turn the tourism industry in the North West province into a dynamic, sustainable, diversified and vibrant sector.
The MEC further said the province is planning to position heritage as a strategic thrust in expanding the Tourism Portfolio.
“I am glad to say the Mahikeng Airport is sound and ready. We will experience our first flight that will take off on the 27 March 2015. So we tried to minimize the distance between the O.R. Tambo International Airport and other provinces to allow our tourists to be ferried into the province without any hassle,” she said.
The North West province has highlighted Culture, Tourism and Agriculture as key points to grow the economy of the province.
“The province is mainly dominated by rural areas, so it will be very imperative to note that most heritage sites are what we call rural heritage sites surrounded by deep cultural diversity,” Mohono explained.
According to Mohono, her department in conjunction with Public Works in the province is planning to upgrade some of heritage sites such as the Letlamoreng Dam, Taung Skull Heritage Site and Dinkgwaneng Heritage site where some of the roads are inaccessible.
http://www.thevoicebw.com/2015/03/20/botswana-vital-for-sa-tourism/
