The Effects of Climate Change on the Tourism Industry in Botswana:A case in Chobe District

Abstract

Climate change and environmental degradation pose existential threats to Botswana's tourism and its competitiveness. The acceleration of desertification caused by climate change is putting pressure on key wildlife habitats, particularly through water scarcity. Despite adaptation efforts,water scarcity is high and climate risks remain pronounced. Tourism in the Chobe district is also overwhelmingly dependent on nature-based and biodiversity-driven activities, making it particularly vulnerable to climatic impacts.This study follows a mixed approach which entails both qualitative and quantitative methods.Using both facts and figures as well as feelings and observations to produce the most impactful result. This is based upon the assumption that if diverse types of data are collected, then they will provide an understanding of the research problem as a whole. The researcher distributed surveys and interviews both internally to key employees and externally to clients of The Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, and internally to the Botswana Tourism Organization. To the targeted internal population of 4 respondents, the sample procedure that was used was of judgment or purposive sampling. Researchers may implicitly thus choose a"representative" sample to suit their needs, or specifically approach individuals with certain characteristics. Whereas the targeted external population of 20 people was chosen through Stratified Random Sampling.Stratified random sampling is performed by dividing a population into groups with similar attributes. A quantitative and qualitative analysis were used in analyzing the data collected, as this is  a mixed methods research paper. The findings confirm that internal employees are affected by the shortcomings of administration and government, the information systems mused within the organisations are inadequate and the clients are greatly affected by slow allocation and poor customer service.