World Tourism Day celebrations just past, HOORC's Library has received The realities of ecotourism development in Botswana by HOORC researcher Joseph E. Mbaiwa. The publication is a chapter in a new book published by Earthscan, Responsible Tourism : Critical Issues for Conservation and Development. Mbaiwa reviews recent nature tourism developments in the country and points out challenges that...
G. Pascal Zachary profiles Antrak Air founded by Asoma Banda and discusses the "air transport solution":
...air service provides an important boost — and not only for people. Fresh mangoes are making the plane trip from Tamale to Accra as well. Some of the mangoes get eaten by prosperous urban elites, while the remainder move onto another airplane — this one traveling to Europe...[continue...
A full day tourism dialogue and panel discussion, hosted by HOORC, is taking place on September 26th at Riley's Hotel in Maun as part of World Tourism Day celebrations. The public is invited to share ideas and opinions about how tourism is responding to climate change. Celebrations on Saturday September 27th will take place at the Big Tree on the Thamalakane River. In Gaborone, the University of...
HOORC's Library collections are beginning to reflect the current trend of "best of" and "before you die" in travel publishing aimed at the higher end (and ageing) tourism market. Titles recently arrived include:
Fifty places to go birding before you die : birding experts share the world's greatest destinations : Fifty places to go birding before you die : birding experts share the world's...
Historic fruit crate label from the Sacramentao San Joaquin Delta
Visiting scholar Alex Westhoff has been in Maun for the past two weeks talking to people about tourism in the Okavango Delta. Alex works for the Delta Protection Commission near Sacramento, California, and is engaged in developing a plan to designate the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta as a National Heritage Area, highlighting local...
Maria Henson in the Delta
HOORC's Library had a visit today from Sacramento Bee editor Maria Henson, who has been working as a volunteer with the University of Botswana, Bana Ba Letsatsi, Children in the Wilderness, and Desert and Delta Safaris (through volunteer travel company The Leap). You can read about Maria's experiences in her web log, Maria's African...
Mobile safari tourist in Okavango Delta
The 2008-2009 edition of the Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB)'s tourism guide, This is Botswana, has arrived in HOORC's Library. The guide provides an up-to-date printed version of the directory found on the HATAB web site, with telephone numbers and e-mail addresses for Botswana camps and lodges, self-catering apartments, guest...
Map courtesy of Hisso Sebina, Conservation International
HOORC tourism specialist Dr Joseph Mbaiwa has just returned from a Conservation International workshop in Kang where this week participants from government, NGOs, local experts, tourism businesses and researchers discussed opportunities for tourism development within the Western Kgalagadi Conservation Corridor. The Corridor runs between...
Professor Donald Kgathi, HOORC economics specialist, presented Recreational Use Value of Nature-based Tourism and Willingness to Pay for Conservation of Biodiversity in the Okavango Delta, Botswana: Implications for Policy at the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) conference in Nairobi earlier this month. The paper describes findings of research carried out by Professor...
It's little known fact but the Russians invaded Turkey long before they set their sights on Georgia. Antayla, which sits on the Mediterranean Coast and used to be not awful, receives planeloads of vomit-splattered yobs from Rostov every day. Any devushka worth her boob job knows that Antalya is waaaay better than Batumi, with the added benefit of plenty of oversexed Turkish men (hey girls! It's not whoring if you give it away!). The Turks have been falling over themselves to serve this new demographic, which demands high prices and the same level of quality and service they've come to expect back home in Smolensk. They've even built a resort replica of the Kremlin and St. Basil's so Russians feel at home. I've heard that a Russian developer is building a seven star hotel which, to you...
HOORC's Library recently received the first 2008 issue of The Zebra's Voice, quarterly publication of the Botswana National Museum. The issue commemorates the Museum's 40th anniversary and contains articles about the Adopt-a-Monument campaign, pre-development archaeology, revitalization of the Motswedi wa Ditso cultural heritage radio programme, and local community involvement in eco- and...
From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLVI, no. 35, 6 June 2008
Tender: Republic of Botswana: consultancy services for regional integration of Botswana’s transport sector study
2819
Tender: Tawana Land Board: tourism related sites identification in the Okavango Delta Ramsar Site (ODRS) second publication
2863
From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLVI, no. 36, 13 June 2008
Statutory...
The year 2002 was declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Ecotourism. For this occasion, the World Tourism Organization (UWTO) prepared a series of market reports with the aim to increase the knowledge of seven important countries considered “Ecotourism generating markets”. The survey analyzed and evaluated the nature tourism and ecotourism market, its volume,...
Sankuyo villagers, from the Trust's web site
In a new article published in the online periodical, TourismWatch, HOORC researcher Susan Keitumetse argues that the protected area model limits local communities' opportunities to engage their cultural landscapes in tourism taking place in national parks. A study of the Sankuyo Tshwaragano Management Trust showed that that cultural tourism can...
The Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre (HOORC) is growing. The University of Botswana is currently advertising the following academic positions for HOORC for both Botswana citizens and international candidates:
Vacancy No. HOORC1/2008 Associate Professor/Senior Research Fellow in Wildlife Ecology and ManagementVacancy No. HOORC2/2008 Associate Professor/Senior Research Fellow in...
The Good Safari Guide, a commercial travel site, has announced its 2008 awards. The winners include Botswana's Jack's Camp for the best ecological safari property in Africa (Camps), Kwando in second place for the best safari guiding team in Africa (Lodges), and Moremi for the best wildlife reserve in Africa (Reserves). In HOORC's Library, you can find The hotel book : great escapes Africa ,...
A workshop to discuss the Botswana Department of Tourism's work on a tourism policy for Botswana was held in Maun on May 22nd. The workshop, Tourism Policy For Botswana: Key Issues Affecting Botswana's Tourism Competitiveness was sponsored by the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and Government of Botswana to allow discussion of a consultants' issue paper compiled from interviews with key...
The Tawana Land Board has published an invitation to tender from companies to undertake Tourism Related Sites Identification in the Okavango Delta Ramsar Site (ODRS) (Tender Number TLB/08/2008). Full details are in the tender document which can be obtained from the office of the Board Secretary, Tawana Land Board in Maun, Tel. 0267-6-0292. The bid submission deadline is Friday 19th of June, 2008...
WAASPS is the first Ultralight air-work, training and aircraft assembly operation in Ghana.Services offered include:
-Crop Spraying
-Advertising
-Tourism
The company states that they are "...bringing affordable aviation solutions to the heart of the people and places where it can make a...
The March 2008 issue of the Boteti Diaries has arrived by email in HOORC's Library, with vivid descriptions of the past season's rains and floods on the salt pans, comments about tenders for new private development of lodges in Makgadikgadi Pans and Nxai Pan national parks and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), white rhino relocation plans for the Boteti in Makgadikgadi Pans National...
The second annual Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008 was released by the World Economic Forum in March, with the theme Balancing Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability. The report's Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) measures the factors and policies that make it attractive to develop the tourism sector in different countries. The rankings cover 130 countries...
The professional guide : dynamics of tour guiding by Kathleen Lingle Pond, a well known textbook for both practicing and aspiring tourist guides, has arrived in HOORC's Library. The book aims to provide an understanding of the role of guides as interpreters of their regions as well as guidelines for developing a full or part-time career in international tourism. Practical instruction in...
HOORC researcher on Cultural Heritage Tourism, Dr Susan Keitumetse, has been specially invited to give a lecture at the University of Florida's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Center for African Studies, Department of Anthropology, Gainsville, USA. The lecture will take place on the 16th April 2008 titled: Managing Intangible Heritage for Tourism Policy Development: Okavango Delta,...
Cultural tourism in a changing world : politics, participation and (re)presentation from Channel View Publications, introduces researchers, students and practitioners to a range of debates about the political and social implications of cultural tourism. Theoretical sections provide the framework for a range of case studies of politics and policy, community participation and empowerment, and the...
From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLVI, no. 16, 14 March 2008
Government Notice 133 of 2008: Town and Country Planning Act: Kasane - Kazengula Development Plan (2000-2024)
1339
Tender: Republic of Botswana: Management and operation of 15 public campgrounds / campsites
1346-1347
Tender: North West District Council: Gravelling and re-gravelling of roads
1376-1378
From the Botswana...
The United Nations Environment Programme has launched a programme to promote environmentally responsible tourism, Green Passport : Holidays for a Living Planet. An interactive web site introduces travellers to sustainable practices in selection of destinations, choices of transport and accomodation, eating, meeting people, wildlife watching and purchase of souvenirs. In HOORC’s Library, you can...
The IRIN news web site of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has a current story about HIV AIDS programmes offered by tourism operators in the Okavango Delta, as well as one about the Maun Homeopathy Project, a group of volunteer homeopathic practitioners working with Botswana's health services to treat HIV positive people in Ngamiland. In HOORC's Library, you can find...
From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLVI, no. 4, 18 January 2008
Tender: Republic of Botswana Dept. of Water Affairs: provision of consulting services for water tariff study
126
From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLVI, no. 5, 25 January 2008
Tender: Republic of Botswana: management and operation of 15 public camp grounds/camp sites (Chobe National Park, Khutse Game Reserve,...
The Botswana Tourism Board's List of graded tourist accommodation facilities , issued at the end of 2007, provides a classified list of hotels, guesthouses, game lodges and camps and self-catering establishments in Botswana, with one to five star grades assigned. Botswana's Tourism Act provides that all tourism facilities providing accommodation be graded in accordance with the grading...
The Botswana Tourism Board has launched an e-newsletter, Botswana Best Practices Newsletter. The first issue has a story about development of the Ecosystem Best Practices Guidelines manual for Botswana that should be presented to stakeholders early this year. You can request a copy of the newsletter from: Tshenolo Mopako tmopako@botswanatourism.co.bw at the...