Kutlo Motseta
28th February 2026
The Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana (HABAT), held a press conference at the Cresta President Hotel, Gaborone with Ms. Lily Rakorong, Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the HATAB optimistic about the tourism scetor following the 2026 state budget speech.
“We believe we are going to have a good year … we look forward to working with our members and the media as we continue with our story,” she said.
Ms. Rakorong based her optimism on the governments proposed national infrastructural developments, infrastructural maintenance, airport and roads upgrades.
The tourism sector is the second biggest employer after government and employed 58,426 before covid. HATAB is a private sector custodian of the local industry and works with its affiliates to contribute to tourism.
Ms. Rakorong is open to working with the public sector to drive tourism, employment and economic diversification.
“Tourism is where everyone belongs … we will continue to partner with those who supply things that are needed in the tourism sector,” she said.
“It is important to look at creativity and innovation … if innovators come up with solutions we will partner with them” she added.
In reference to city tourism, she said locals don’t need to cross the border for entertainment when equally sophisticated facilities can be developed domestically.
“We as the private sector want to drive this … we know the product. … we can infuse creative ideas and have an exciting city. People can stop crossing borders, we can have our own cigar lounges. We can have Botswana as a destination. A family from Francistown can come and spend a holiday here in Gaborone … we have only reached 10% of what tourism can offer in this country … we can create much needed jobs … this needs an environment that enables it to thrive,” she said.
Ms. Rakorong hopes that the implementation of reforms will be expedited to enable the country to realize its full tourism economic potential.
“To live up to expectations of national development goals, reforms will have to be one of the keys things on the agenda. E.g. licensing standard, tourism and marketing; policy registration changes and visa requirements … are a few of the examples [that can be worked on] … [the] quickest win is reforms … given the economic climate,” she added.
Ms. Rakorong said the government has visa bottlenecks and hopes the industry’s systems will be fully digitalized soon, to ease administrative functions. She further hopes for productive partnerships with the international community and welcomes the return of the national Tourism Pitso as the industry intensifies its national economic diversification efforts.
“We are going to meet with the European Union and are hoping to resuscitate the market value chain … we are resilient industry,” she said.
