Tourist Facilities in the Okavango Delta

Tourism Impacts on Agriculture in the Okavango Delta

4.4 Tourism in the Okavango Delta

4.4.2 Tourist Facilities in the Okavango Delta

By virtue of being Botswana's major tourist destination, the Okavango Delta contains sixty hotels, lodges and safari and hunting camps, with most of them situated in Maun.

Structured questionnaires, for the purpose of interviews were distributed to 57 of these tourist accommodation facilities, with responses received from 53 of them. Therefore, 88 percent of the hotels, lodges and safari camps in the Okavango Delta were

considered in this study.

With regard to ownership, 95 percent of these tourist accommodation facilities have foreign involvement. More specifically, 75 percent were owned by foreigners (Table

4.4).

Table 4.4: Ownership of Tourist Accommodation Facilities

Ownership Percentage

Foreign Owned

75

.

Jointly Foreign and

Locally Owned 20

Locally Owned

5

These findings correlate with Silitshena and McLeod's (1998) findings regarding the ownership of accommodation and transportation sectors in Maun. According to their research, 82 of 97 accommodation and transportation companies (85 percent) have foreign involvement, with 50 of these being entirely foreign owned. Only 15 percent of these companies were owned by black Botswana citizens (Ndubano, 2000).

According to Cooper

et al

(1993), this form of foreign ownership is not unique to

Botswana. Most Third World tourism industries are dominated by foreign ownership

and participation, especially in the accommodation sector. As Ndubano (2000) also highlights, in many developing tourism industries there is a danger in foreign

involvement and ownership reaching proportions where any meaningful participation by local citizens is impossible. The domination of the tourism industry in the Okavango Delta by foreign interest has increasingly led to the loss of resource control by the local population (Ndubano, 2000).

There is no grading system for hotels in Botswana. However, most hotels in the Okavango Delta region maintain a reasonable, to high standard, particularly those whose main clientele consist of foreign tourists. The more up-market hotels in the region contain air-conditioning, swimming pools, television and entertainment facilities, while most other hotels have most of the basic amenities

(http://www.safariweb.com ... htm).

Lodges and safari camps in the Okavango Delta tend to vary in terms of standards and facilities on offer. Some safari camps are merely campsites with ablution blocks, and can be very reasonably priced, while others consist of luxury groups of chalets or cottages, complete with swimming pools, cinemas, conference rooms and shops.

Some lodges such as Nxamaseri Camp provide accommodation in luxury safari tents.

Many lodges and safari camps also hire out boats, game and bird viewing and fishing equipment, and offer experienced guides (http://www.safariweb.com ... htm).

Table 4.5: Average Prices for Accommodation Facilities in the Okavango Delta (US $) (2002)

Room Type Ave. Price pip Sharing

Tented Camp $50-200

Hotel $50-200

Lodge $50-300

Campsite $3,50

Source: (http://www.safariweb.com ... htm)

As can be seen from Table 4.5, most tourist accommodation facilities charge prices well beyond the means of the local population, whose average monthly incomes range from P441 to P731 (Republic of Botswana Statistical Bulletin, 2001).

Although tourism facilities are dispersed throughout the Okavango Delta region, and are somewhat diversified in type, price-range and structure, the segregation of the local population from these facilities through income disparities has led to the growth of tourist enclaves. In Maun, for example, most of the prime river-bank areas are

dominated by concentrations of 'upmarket' lodges and hotels, which are insulated from the local population housing areas by 'uninhabited green stretches'. These tourist facilities cater only to the foreign visitors, offering various eco-tourism activities such as boat trips through the Delta, fishing, wildlife and bird viewing opportunities, and

swimming pools, bars and restaurants, further strengthening the segregation of the tourist industry and local population, and enforcing the growth of enclaves (Briguglio

et al,1996).

The implementation of Community Based Natural Resource Management Projects (CBNRM) in the Okavango Delta is seen as a possible means to involve the local population in the tourist industry, and lessening the extent of 'enclave development' in the area. CBNRM projects focus on allowing local communities to utilise their

surrounding natural resources in an attempt to create tourist opportunities, as well as self-employment initiatives (van der Jagt

et aI, 2000).

The potential exists to create extensive Community Based Projects in the Okavango Delta due to the increase in infrastructure, stability and economic growth that has occurred through tourism development over the past decade. The number of tourists visiting the area has steadily risen, and efforts should be made for more of the local inhabitants to benefit from this increase (van der Jagt

et aI, 2000).

CBNRM is a strategy that aims to find new solutions to the failure of 'top-down'

approaches to conservation, and rests on the recognition that local communities must

be given full tenure rights over the utilisation and benefit of natural resources in order

to value them in an sustainable manner. This approach entails community institution

building, comprehensive training, enterprise development and policy negotiation of

natural resource management amongst other form of assistance (van der Jagt

et ai, 2000).

The CBNRM approach to local communities that have wildlife as a natural resource is simple. A community is organised into a Community Based Organisation and a wildlife quota and resource-use lease is obtained and sold in its entirety to a safari company and the money is then channelled back into the community. The main aims of CBNRM is to improve the living conditions of the people residing within the natural area, create employment opportunities and alleviate rural poverty, as well as the conservation of the natural environment (van der Jagt

et ai, 2000).

Thirty percent of the land area in Ngamiland District is zoned as Wildlife Management Areas. Hence, there is the possibility of developing extensive CBNRM projects in these WMAs. Experience elsewhere has shown that the long term growth and sustainability of the tourism industry lies in the host communities attitude towards it, especially in rural communities where it is often based. It is perceived that when the local population is fully involved in the management and utilisation of wildlife resources to their

advantage, they will come to appreciate its value and hence use it sustainably (van der Jagt

et ai, 2000).

Most of the tourist accommodation facilities in the Okavango Delta cater to the eco-

tourism market in that they offer wildlife and bird-viewing opportunities and seasonal

boat trips through the Delta. All of these facilities hire between five and sixty black

Motswana staff members including waiters/waitresses, grounds men/women, cleaners,

tour guides and kitchen staff (Table 4.6)

Table 4.6: Total Hotel, Lodge, Safari Camp Employment Figures (2001/2002)

Employee Type Number

WaiterslWaitresses 490

Grounds People 520

Cleaners 550

Tour Guides 350

Kitchenstaff 500

According to the questionnaires completed by the managers of hotels, lodges and safari camps in the Okavango Delta, 95 percent of the accommodation facilities offer meals to tourists, while only 5 percent are entirely self catering. All 95 percent employ a chef/s to prepare meals. According to the questionnaires completed, 96 percent of the chefs were Motswana, while only 4 percent were of a foreign nationality.

Most tourist accommodation facilities in the Okavango Delta have, on average, more

than 40 tourists staying there each month (Figure 4.1).

Figure 4.1: Hotel, Lodge, Safari Camp Monthly Tourist Numbers (Okavango

Delta, Botswana) (2001/2002)

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Number of Tourists

Table 4.7: Room Occupancy Rates for Tourism Accommodation Facilities (Okavango Delta, Botswana, 2001)

Year 1999

2000 2001

Room Occupancy

(%) 56,3

51,9 54,2

Source: Republic of Botswana Statistical 6ulletin (2001).

Table 4.7 shows that there has been an overall decline of 2, 1 percent in room

occupancy since 1999. This may

be

attributed to an increase in the number of rooms

available since 1999 due to the expansion of existing hotels, lodges and safari camps

in the Delta, and the establishment of new accommodation facilities in this area.