the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

5.4.2.5 The Growth of Modern Tourism in Botswana
In 1962 East African hunting safari companies were invited to explore the possibility
of setting up 'branches' in Botswana. Three East African companies and one locally
established one signed agreements and were given large concession areas in and
around the Okavango Delta region and Chobe Game Reserve. In these concession
areas local inhabitants were allowed to continue hunting, while they were closed to
foreigners unless hunting with the concession holder. A package hunting license
was developed comprising 31 animals of a wide range of species, and consequently
rich foreign sportsmen began to come to Botswana to hunt with licensed
professionals hunters. The following year a further concession was granted in the
Kgalagadi to another locally based company, and in 1966, about 439 tourists paid
the equivalent of Pula 67 078 for hunting licenses in Botswana (Campbell, 1997).
While the hunting industry expanded, an embryonic photographic industry began to
develop. A South-African-based mobile operation, Afrika en Touren n Safari, started
to bring tourists on three-week trips to the Okavango. Major Jocelyn set up a camp
at Mababe in the Chobe Game Reserve and bought tourists from Zimbabwe for
fishing and wildlife viewing, while at the same time, the first hotel was built in
Kasane. There was, however, no Department of Tourism at the time, and it was
several years before a tourist officer was appointed in the newly formed Department
of Wildlife and National Parks (Campbell, 1997).
One of the major challenges presently facing Botswana is ensuring that the growing
tourism industry does not destroy the natural, cultural and social environments upon
which it is based. In order to control the development of the industry the Botswana
government formulated the Tourism Policy of 1990. This policy emphasized the
promotion of high cost, low volume tourism, and aimed at ensuring that Batswana
benefited from the development of tourism (http://www.gov.bw...html).
5.4.2.6 The Department of Tourism
The Department of Tourism (DOT) is responsible for the formulation and
implementation of policy objectives to maximise the sustainable utilisation of existing
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