Botswana authorities have announced that the country is ready to receive private charter flights into the country’s resort towns starting next month amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The private charter flights will be allowed in the country at two ports of entry namely, Maun and Kasane International Airports. This was revealed by the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism.

The announcement further said the government is finalising the required legislative framework to facilitate such air travel, which will include protocols for compliance. With international tourists expected to start coming into the country, the ailing tourism industry is expected to revive its plunging operations.

Uncertainties still haunt the tourism industry and threaten to plunge the sector into an abyss. Statistics paints a gloomy picture of the tourism industry and Germany recently donated EUR 4.8 million (USD 1.17 million) to support the local tourism sector which has been adversely affected by Covid-19.

In addition, the tourism industry is also part of the government’s Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan (ERTP) expected to ignite several sectors from the Covid-19 impacts.