Desert and Delta marketing boss urges agents to ‘change the narrative’ around safaris

Agents should “change the narrative” around safaris and avoid selling them as “once-in-a-lifetime” trips, according to the marketing director of Botswana specialist Desert and Delta.

Addressing a small group of media at 3Sixty Luxury Marketing’s annual Conserving What Matters event on June 9, Andrew Flatt said: “I personally believe that one of the biggest faults that the tourism industry in Botswana has right now is that an agent selling Botswana will tell you ‘this is once in a lifetime, you’re only going to go to Botswana once, you really have to make it count’.

“But why? Why are we setting a narrative? Why are we telling people you can only go somewhere once?”

He encouraged agents to reframe how they sell the destination and focus more on Botswana’s sustainability model.

“It’s a great model of how the protection of wildlife has been ingrained into the people. So go there and enjoy it, just leave out the part of it being once in a lifetime,” he said.

Flatt also suggested focusing on Botswana’s opportunities for cultural and adventure tourism to showcase a different side to the destination.

“Why is it that the only value we place is on the landscape and the animal?” he said.

“Those are not the only two things that contribute to an economy or make up an economy, so where is the opportunity here for us to start changing the narrative and saying to people ‘don’t just go to Botswana because of that. Hey, you, who’s got a completely different interest, why don’t you consider this destination?’”

Flatt also summarised a few of the ways the brand, whose mission is to “empower Botswana through tourism”, protects the environment.

He said Desert and Delta uses “every dollar we take for something positive” and avoids increasing the amount of tourism infrastructure in place across the country by not building new lodges.

“We will take over a camp and we will refurbish or rebuild it. We are not adding a camp, so if there’s 24 beds at a camp, we’ll take over those 24 beds from someone else, and hopefully sell them better to create a better impact, but we are not adding number series,” he said.