In Pursuit of Sustainable Tourism in Botswana: Perceptions of Maun Tourism Accommodation Operators on Tourism Certification and Eco-Labelling.

Abstract

Tourism is one of the main engines of growth for many economies around the world. This growth has also brought up some negative environmental and socio-economic impacts. Tourism stakeholders have been forced to come up with several mitigation strategies such as certification and eco-labelling to combat these challenges. As a rarely explored concept in the Botswana tourism industry, this paper seeks to determine tourism accommodation operators’ perceptions about tourism certification and eco-labelling based on the Botswana Ecotourism Certification System. A qualitative data enquiry was used in which corporate executives of tourism accommodation facilities were interviewed to determine their perceptions on tourism certification and eco-labelling. The results revealed that tourism businesses in Maun have positive perceptions about tourism eco-labelling and are willing to participate in the program. However, lack of awareness about the scheme and other main factors hinders their attempts to participate in the program. The study recommends that policymakers and developers should intensify awareness-raising within the tourism business community and to devise strategies to incentivize companies to take the necessary action towards building sustainable tourism in Maun.