The coronavirus has left a major impact on the world’s tourism industry, stopping airlines from continuing their operations. Statistics Botswana’s report, published recently, showed how tourism is essential to the country’s economy. 

The Tourism Statistics Annual Report for 2018 pointed out that the African nation was visited by more than 1.8 million tourists in 2018, going up by 3.5% from 2017. 

People from South Africa and Zimbabwe were the most to visit Botswana, accounting for 35% and 29.5% of the total number of people overall. 

The report continued to convey that 27% of those visiting went to visit their relatives or friends, whilst 23% visited Botswana on business. In 2018, 22.5% of the tourists visited for a holiday. 

The number of holidaymakers in 2018 was 18% lower than the figures for 2017, the Tourism Statistics Annual Report showed.

The fourth favourite reason to visit the country was the category “Religious, Conferencing, Sports, Medical & Shopping activities,” at 8.7%.

It also noted that two years ago, 83.2% of the travelling tourists resided in the SADC Region. 

Currently, only nationals and foreign nationals with valid residency visas can travel to Botswana as it is not open for tourism yet.