From Traveler 24

In a luxury tourist lodge in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve, guests are sipping cold drinks.

The elegant, air-conditioned bar offers a magnificent view of the desert outside, where elephants or giraffes sometimes pass by.

If outsiders try to enter here, they are promptly told to leave. The lodge has been reserved for a small group of wealthy tourists.

This is African tourism at its most exclusive, and it is a model Botswana intends to preserve, even if the numbers of visitors to the southern African country are increasing.

About 400 000 leisure travellers were recorded in Botswana in 2010, up from 276 000 in 2001, according to the latest government figures.

Tourists to Botswana have some relatively cheap options, such as last-minute offers or camping in game parks, said Dimari Oliver from the safari company &Beyond.

But the country remains best known for the likes of Spain’s former king Juan Carlos and Britain’s Prince Harry – visitors in line with its “high value, low volume” tourism policy.

 

 

Read more at Traveler 24