Part III - CASE STUDY 4.1
Enclave development in Botswana's Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta in north-western Botswana (Figure 1) comprises a wetland zone that extends over some 550 square miles and provides a wildlife habitat of international importance. It is also home to more than 120,000 people but a combination of a lack of employment, low incomes, limited food sources, periodic crop failures and high incidence of disease contributes to a significant level of local poverty in what is already one of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. When the country gained independence in 1966, tourism was almost completely absent from the Botswana economy but it has developed to the point at which it is now estimated to contribute around 5 per cent of the GDP and is the second largest sector after diamond mining. Some 50,000 tourists visit the Okavango Delta each year, primarily to enjoy the wildlife. Almost 90 per cent are foreign visitors (most of whom originate from Europe, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) and the visitors stay in accommodation that ranges from luxury lodges to camps.
Figure 1. The Okavango Delta region of Botswana
Enclave development in Botswana's Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta in north-western Botswana (Figure 1) comprises a wetland zone that extends over some 550 square miles and provides a wildlife habitat of international importance. It is also home to more than 120,000 people but a combination of a lack of employment, low incomes, limited food sources, periodic crop failures and high incidence of disease contributes to a significant level of local poverty in what is already one of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. When the country gained independence in 1966, tourism was almost completely absent from the Botswana economy but it has developed to the point at which it is now estimated to contribute around 5 per cent of the GDP and is the second largest sector after diamond mining. Some 50,000 tourists visit the Okavango Delta each year, primarily to enjoy the wildlife. Almost 90 per cent are foreign visitors (most of whom originate from Europe, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) and the visitors stay in accommodation that ranges from luxury lodges to camps.
Figure 1. The Okavango Delta region of Botswana
As is characteristic of many developing countries, tourism was adopted enthusiastically by the Botswanan government as a sector that was expected to bring positive development benefits and new economic opportunities. However, the enclavic nature of development in the Okavango has, in practice, limited the true impact in a number of ways. These include:
Source: Mbaiwa, J.E. (2005) ‘Enclave tourism and its socio-economic impacts in the Okavango Delta, Botswana’, Tourism Management, Vol. 26 (2): 157–72.
- Limited interactions between visitors and local people. Most tourists arrive by air at Maun and are transferred directly by light aircraft or road to the main lodges in the Okavango. There is, consequently, little expenditure by tourists in Maun or the villages of the Okavango and sectors such as cultural tourism are poorly developed.
- Heavy dependence upon foreign services and weak linkages to other sectors of the Botswana economy. Almost 80 per cent of the tourist infrastructure is wholly or partially owned by foreign companies and most of the food supplies to the main lodges are sourced from South Africa.
- Poor retention of revenue from tourism within Botswana. With such high levels of foreign ownership it is inevitable that much of the revenue from tourism is repatriated outside the country – through payments for imports and foreign services; salaries paid to foreign staff; or dividends to overseas investors. The travel companies that handle bookings and other organisational arrangements are also foreign, as are the principal airlines that transport visitors to and from Botswana. Consequently, over 70 per cent of the revenue from tourism in the Okavanga is dispersed elsewhere.
- Limitations on local employment. The development of tourism has directly created more than 1,600 jobs in the region, but the jobs occupied by local people are almost entirely in low-skill, low-pay occupations such as maids, kitchen staff, drivers and porters. As is characteristic of enclave developments, higher-level, managerial posts are generally filled by foreign workers who bring the requisite level of expertise and experience.
- Difficulties in recovering adequate levels of local taxation from companies registered outside of Botswana. In practice, only 11 per cent of the tourist companies operating in the Okavanga Delta area pay local tax.
Source: Mbaiwa, J.E. (2005) ‘Enclave tourism and its socio-economic impacts in the Okavango Delta, Botswana’, Tourism Management, Vol. 26 (2): 157–72.