MAUN CARNIVAL IMPRESSES SUB COUNCIL

The first ever Maun Carnival, which brought fun, colour and culture to the tourist town over the Independence holiday, has also brought a number of business opportunities for local communities.

This was the feedback given to the Maun Administrative Authority (MAA) on Monday morning as council kickstarted a week’s worth of meetings.

In his opening remarks, Sub Council

Chairperson, Vepaune Moreti, voiced his confidence that the Carnival will do wonders for Maun’s tourism prospects.

“The event will go a long way in promoting Maun as a tourist destination. Furthermore, this enhances the village community in the area as a good value addition to the tourism product being offered in Maun,” he said.

Moreti was highlighting Botswana Tourism Organisation’s (BTO) efforts to support local tourism by exploiting value chain opportunities such as the Maun Carnival.

He further added that by endorsing and sponsoring the carnival, BTO was fulfilling its new tourism policy objectives to diversify and promote domestic tourism.

“It is anticipated that the event will continue to grow and will form part of Tourism product development and diversification in the northern part of Botswana which can attract more visitors locally, regionally and later internationally,” predicted Moreti.

The three-day carnival, which ran from 29th September to 1st October, has since made it onto BTO’S annual calendar of events.

Moreti believes the opportunities created by the Carnival are evidence of President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s RESET agenda in action.

“BTO is working on realigning its objectives, programmes and projects to the agenda. The main approach from the BTO is emphasis on the tourism value chain and ensure that maximum benefits are reaped by Batswana through developing programmes that intentionally target Batswana as beneficiaries or shareholders.”