Botswana recorded 1,874,766 non-citizen arrivals and 1,908,139 non-citizen departures in 2023. International visitors made up 63.1% of arrivals, while the country’s tourism economy reached P19.6 billion in internal tourism consumption in 2024. These figures show both the scale of travel to Botswana and the importance of domestic tourism alongside international demand.
Contents
- Tourism scale and recovery
- Spending and economic contribution
- Tourism businesses and employment
- Visitor markets and purposes
- Travel modes, gateways and seasonality
- Visitor profiles and length of stay
Tourism scale and recovery
The Tourism Statistics Annual Report 2023 records 1,874,766 non-citizen arrivals. Of these, 1,182,979 were international visitors, equal to 63.1% of all non-citizen arrivals. The annual report is an administrative-record release covering non-citizen travellers, and it classifies half of recorded in-transit travellers as visitors.
The visitor total was overwhelmingly made up of overnight travel. Overnight visitors numbered 1,099,113, or 92.9% of Botswana’s tourists in 2023. Same-day visitors numbered 83,866, representing 7.1%.
The Botswana Tourism Satellite Account 2024 provides a wider recovery view. Inbound trips reached 1.49 million in 2024, compared with 1.56 million in 2019. The increase from 337,626 inbound trips in 2021 to 1.49 million in 2024 shows the sharp post-2021 recovery, although the 2024 trip count remained below the 2019 level.
Inbound overnights reached 6.85 million in 2024. Domestic travel was larger by trip volume: Botswana residents made 5.79 million domestic tourism trips and generated 21.59 million domestic overnights in 2024. Inbound and domestic measures describe different travel populations, so they should not be combined as if they were one visitor count.
Spending and economic contribution
Tourism’s financial footprint extended beyond international visitors. Total internal tourism consumption reached P19.6 billion in 2024, according to the Tourism Satellite Account. The account reports that this was around 29% higher than the 2019 level in current prices. It also records a low of P10.8 billion in 2021.
Inbound tourism expenditure rose to P9.2 billion in 2024, around 16% higher than in 2019 in current prices. Domestic tourism expenditure reached P10.4 billion, making domestic tourism responsible for 53% of internal tourism consumption. This split is important: Botswana’s tourism demand in 2024 was supported more by domestic spending than by inbound spending.
| 2024 tourism measure | Botswana figure |
|---|---|
| Internal tourism consumption | P19.6 billion |
| Inbound tourism expenditure | P9.2 billion |
| Domestic tourism expenditure | P10.4 billion |
| Tourism-industry gross value added | P12.4 billion |
| Direct tourism GDP | P9.8 billion |
Tourism industries generated P12.4 billion in gross value added in 2024, equal to 5.0% of Botswana’s total gross value added. Direct tourism GDP reached P9.8 billion, representing 3.7% of GDP. Gross value added measures the contribution of tourism industries to production, while direct tourism GDP captures the direct tourism contribution reported in the account; the two measures should not be treated as identical.
Accommodation was the largest single inbound tourism-expenditure category in 2024, accounting for 32%. That share highlights the role of lodging in international visitor spending, even as domestic travel supplied the larger overall expenditure total.
Tourism businesses and employment
Botswana had 1,826 establishments across tourism industries in 2024, compared with 1,818 in 2019. The overall increase was accompanied by different trends within individual activities.
Accommodation establishments rose from 597 in 2019 to 671 in 2024. Travel agencies and similar services increased more modestly, from 210 to 216 establishments. Food and beverage establishments declined from 716 to 656, while rental-car businesses fell from 50 to 43.
Tourism industries accounted for 52,912 jobs in 2024, equal to 7.0% of total employment. Direct tourism employment reached 29,917 jobs. Food and beverage services accounted for 41% of tourism jobs, making them the largest reported employment component.
The relationship between employment and value added varied by activity. Travel agencies generated 28% of direct tourism gross value added while accounting for 3% of tourism jobs. This is a reported sector comparison, not a measure of individual worker productivity or pay.
Visitor markets and purposes
Botswana’s neighbouring countries were its leading visitor markets in 2023. South Africa supplied 394,059 tourists, or 33.3% of the total. Zimbabwe supplied 262,920, or 22.2%. Together, those two markets accounted for more than half of the tourists reported in the annual report.
The top ten overseas countries supplied 198,615 tourists, equal to 16.8% of the total. The United States supplied 62,384 visitors, representing 31.4% of that overseas-market group. The overseas figure and the neighbouring-market figures are presented as separate categories in the source and are not added here.
Visitor purposes were distributed across several major categories:
- Holiday and leisure visitors numbered 312,569, or 26.4% of tourists.
- In-transit visitors numbered 309,007, or 26.1%.
- Visitors staying with friends and relatives numbered 266,284, or 22.5%.
- Business visitors numbered 210,345, or 17.8%.
- Other purposes accounted for 84,774 visitors, or 7.2%.
Holiday and leisure travel was therefore the largest single purpose category, but it was closely followed by in-transit travel. The annual report’s classification note matters here because half of recorded in-transit travellers are classified as visitors.
Travel modes, gateways and seasonality
Road travel dominated Botswana’s tourist arrivals in 2023. It accounted for 90.9%, or 1,074,765 visitors. Air travel accounted for 9.1%, or 107,977 visitors, while rail travel accounted for 215 tourist arrivals.
Among tourist air arrivals, Sir Seretse Khama International Airport handled 53,636 visitors, or 49.7%. Maun Airport handled 39,374, or 36.5%. These were the two largest reported air gateways, together accounting for most of the air arrivals listed in the annual report.
Land-border movements were also substantial. Ramokgwebana Border Post processed 287,603 non-citizen arrivals in 2023, equal to 15.3% of all non-citizen arrivals. On the departure side, Martin’s Drift was the busiest exit port, handling 285,242 departures, or 14.9% of the total.
Arrivals varied by month. December was the busiest tourist-arrival month in 2023, with 126,525 visitors, or 10.7% of the annual total. February was the least busy, with 66,210 visitors, or 5.6%. These are monthly arrival shares, not occupancy rates or measures of the number of tourists present on each day.
Visitor profiles and length of stay
The largest reported tourist age group in 2023 was people aged 40–44, numbering 165,985 visitors, or 14.0% of the total. The 35–39 group was second, with 164,022 visitors, or 13.9%. Tourists aged 20–24 were the smallest reported age group, with 48,896 visitors, or 4.1%.
Male tourists represented 64.1% of tourist arrivals, or 758,824 visitors. Female tourists represented 35.9%, or 424,155. Among overnight visitors, males accounted for 65.4%, or 718,275 people. Among same-day visitors, females accounted for 51.7%, or 43,317 people. These subgroup percentages describe different visitor types and should not be used as one combined gender distribution.
The Tourism Satellite Account reports that the average inbound stay fell from about 6.5 nights in 2019 to 4.8 nights in 2024. The account uses current-price monetary values where stated and covers 2019–2024 using inbound visitor survey, national accounts, employment and business-register data.
A separate International Visitor Arrivals Stats Brief 2023, published as a preliminary brief, counted 1,183,432 international visitors. In that brief, 350,136 tourists stayed 4–7 days, or 29.6%, and 311,987 stayed 1–3 days, or 26.4%. The comprehensive annual report counted 1,182,979 tourists, so these totals are not interchangeable and the brief’s length-of-stay figures should be read within its own scope.
Pula is Botswana’s currency. GVA means gross value added. Together, the 2023 visitor records and the 2024 Tourism Satellite Account show a tourism sector recovering in trip volume, generating P19.6 billion in internal consumption, and relying on both cross-border travel and a substantial domestic market.