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

Table 6.3: Total and Average Monthly Hotel Turnover for Botswana
year 1999 2000
Number of Hotels
Responding
383 370
Total Turnover 144155665 86746288
Monthly Average
Turnover
376386 234449
Accommodation 66010746 (45.8%) 42996174 (50%)
Meals 41 216388 (28.6%) 17885919 (20.6%)
Bar Sales 10444306 (7.2%) 9509489 (11%)
Other 26484225 (18.4%) 16354 706 (18.9%)
Source: Adapted From Republic of Botswana Statistical Bulletin, 2004.
6.3 Tourism in the Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta has long earned its prime position as Botswana's most popular,
year-round tourist destination due to its crystal clear, clean and bilharzia-free swamp
waters, and vast array of animal, bird and plant life. The Okavango region
encompasses a core myriad of wetlands and floodplains, boarded by vast expanses
of mopane and acacia forests, Kalahari savannah, rolling dunes and fossil valleys.
This wildlife refuge, stronghold of one of Africa's last free-ranging wildlife
populations, stands in stark contrast to the small fenced pockets that sadly now
symbolize most of the continents vanished wildlife heritage (OPWT, 1998;
http://www.safariweb.com... htm).
As the cornerstone of Botswana's tourism industry, the Okavango Delta is a vital
source of foreign revenue. Local communities, increasingly aware of the value of
wildlife, are looking towards tourism as their path to economic empowerment. As the
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