25 Jul 2022

Tour De Tuli is seen as demonstration of what government can achieve in its transformational agenda, Minister of Environment and Tourism,  Phildah Kereng, has said.

Kereng, who was speaking at  Loensa Camp on Friday, hailed Tour De Tuli as one of the drivers of tourism that could resuscitate the industry after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In Botswana tourism is the second largest revenue earner after diamonds. It was so hit that there was no hope,” said Kereng, adding her ministry pleaded with tourists not to cancel their trips here, but instead consider postponing until the COVID-19 situation subsided.

She said during the times of strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols, tourism businesses and livelihoods crashed.

“Then mid last year we started talking tourism recovery. We had to come up with new ways of growing this sector, recover it and provide more opportunities while giving more experience,” the minister said and added that government had devised a new revised policy on tourism.

The policy, she said, sought to diversify tourism experiences from the mainstream wildlife in the Chobe and Okavango Delta, but do tourism everywhere in all parts of Botswana.

“After COVID-19, a tourist is no longer interested in coming to see only an elephant and a lion, doing boat cruises in the nice Chobe river. They want to have experience and connect with people,” said Kereng to the ovations from riders who had camped at Loensa a night before riding back to South Africa.

Minister Kereng hailed Tour De Tuli saying it was one of the ‘very practical demonstrations’ of what government stood to do and achieve when driving a transformational agenda in the midst of COVID-19.

The minister said that with activities such as Tour De Tuli, government was actually calling on all interested parties to enjoy tourism and be happy.

On July 21, Tour De Tuli premier mountain riders descended in the Northern Tuli, riding along the ancient game trails, traversing through challenging terrains replete with wild animals; dangerous and innocuous alike.

They cycled in an over 230km of energy sapping yet enjoyable wilderness adventure in four days to support a charitable course through Children In The Wilderness (CITW), a non-profit making organisation supported by Wilderness Safaris, an eco-tourism company.

Riders were a mix of people from Botswana, South Africa, Australia, Switzerland and Belgium amongst other countries who partake an annual Tour De Tuli premier mountain bike adventure in some pristine wilderness areas of

Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa within the Greater Mapungubwe Transfontier Conservation Area.

Each of the riders pay R26 000 as registration fee while businesses also donated funds at the R26 000 minimum.

The accumulated finds are channeled towards CITW to amongst other things up-skill children with conservation and environment.

So far 7 800 children have been hosted in CITW camps since 2001, 1 000 teachers and eco-mentors have been trained, 3 300 reached through weekly eco-clubs while 6 000 children are supported annually with scholarship programmes.

This year an over 350 riders partook in the Tour De Tuli cycling against the usually over 200 cyclists owing to the excitement of travelling again after COVID-19 restrictions were loosened. BOPA