Rediscover Botswana was a

domestic tourism Domestic tourism is tourism involving residents of one country traveling only within that country. Such a vacation is known as a domestic vacation (British: domestic holiday or holiday at home). For large countries, such as Russia, Brazil, Canada, ...

campaign that ran in

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

from July 27 to August 22, 2020. It encompassed an 8,000 kilometre tour across various

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural beaut ...

s in Botswana. The event was organised and hosted by media personalities Thalefang Charles and Sonny Serite, and it was sponsored by the Botswana Tourism Organisation with support from several tourism associations. The tour began at the Matsieng Footprints and ended at the Dikgosi monuments in

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Botswana, largest city of Botswana, with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its metropolitan area is home to 534, ...

. Sites were selected to demonstrate diversity among tourist destinations, including "national parks, heritage sites, cultural offerings, and other sites" at various budgets. Rediscover Botswana was carried out in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the resulting decline of

international tourism International tourism is tourism that crosses national borders. Globalization has made tourism a popular global leisure activity. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual ...

. It was intended to spread awareness of notable places in Botswana and educate citizens about how to best travel domestically. Tourism has been a significant aspect of the Botswana economy prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Rediscover Botswana campaign sought to prevent some of the financial losses associated with the decline in tourism. The campaign was well received and is believed to have contributed to domestic tourist bookings. Charles listed the most significant visits of the tour as the

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is a large wildlife reserve and conservation biology, conservation area in southern Africa. The park straddles the border between South Africa and Botswana and comprises two adjoining national parks: * Kalahari Gems ...

, the

Gcwihaba Gcwihaba is a cave in Botswana located in Okavango Delta region. The Gcwihaba Caves were part of the Kalahari landscape around 2 million years ago, at least for the entire period of the Pleistocene. The name of the cave is a San people, San word ...

caves, the

Boro BORO (Business Objects Reference Ontology) is an approach to developing ontological or semantic models for large complex operational applications that consists of a top ontology as well as a process for constructing the ontology. It was originally ...

and Thamalakane rivers, AfroBotho, the

Moremi Game Reserve Moremi Game Reserve is a protected area in Botswana. It lies on the eastern side of the Okavango Delta and was named after Chief Moremi of the BaTawana tribe. Moremi was designated as a game reserve, rather than a national park, when it was ...

, and the

Makgadikgadi Pan The Makgadikgadi Pan ( Tswana pronunciation ), a salt pan situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadi ...

References

2020 in Botswana Economic history of Botswana Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism Tourism campaigns Tourism in Botswana {{Tourism-stub