Botswana, the continent's leading tourist destination, has developed a digital museum to facilitate access to the country's heritage and cultural crafts for the international audience. It is an original initiative that aims to maintain a tourist activity, less but real, while participating in the promotion of local culture.
"This project is part of the country's efforts to position Botswana as a destination of choice and to be relevant on the international stage," said Philda KERENG, Botswana's Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism.
Virtual museum will allow Botswana artists to showcase their work to the world
According to Philda KERENG, the virtual museum will allow Botswana artists to showcase their work to the world and is expected to be completed by December of this year. Due to the limited movement of people following the imposition of travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Botswana's tourism industry has been hit hard. The impact of the COVID-19 crisis, which is severely affecting the mining and tourism sectors, the two main engines of the economy, will be very strong with a recession of 5.4 percent according to the IMF.
This southern African country, a popular tourist destination, relatively unaffected by the pandemic in terms of health, has relaxed the containment measures and put in place an economic recovery plan that aims essentially to support businesses, while initiatives have been taken to maintain activity and employment in the tourism sector... At least on the virtual level.
In Rwanda, US$50 million invested by the government in tourism initiatives based on new technologies
This is also the approach adopted by Rwanda. In the country of the Thousand Hills, the authorities as well as companies and professionals in the sector have since the beginning of the pandemic called on digital to overcome the crisis in the sector. This is the case of Kigali 360 and Thousand Hills Africa, which offer Virtual Reality (VR) tours of the country's national parks, a cornerstone of tourism in Rwanda. To encourage these innovative solutions, the government has injected $50 million into tourism initiatives focused on new technologies to accelerate the post-coronavirus tourism recovery.
Thus, digital tourism or E-tourism, boosted by the pandemic, is becoming a reality, far from being virtual, on the continent.
