Botswana Joins Zambia and More as KAZA Launches Regenerative Tourism to Boost Jobs and Conservation

Botswana joins Zambia and more Southern African destinations as KAZA launches regenerative tourism to boost jobs and conservation across one of the region’s most important nature-based travel landscapes. This program helps governments of the region to increase tourism and at the same time combat loss of biodiversity and address social and economic well being of local communities. It focuses on promoting local businesses, including women and youth within and around protected areas. It helps improve local communities’ capacity to conserve natural resources and ecosystems while at the same time promoting nature-based tourism. This program demonstrates the importance of tourism to a protected destination, and helps to boost local communities’ efforts in creating and promoting nature-based tourism. It also contributes to the conservation and protection of essential biodiversity, which in turn enhances the ecosystem and contributes to tourism growth.

How Could KAZA Regenerative Tourism Change Travel Across Southern Africa?

The KAZA regenerative tourism initiative creates a new framework linking tourism growth with conservation and community livelihoods across Botswana, Zambia, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Launched in Maun in September 2026, the Joint Action on Regenerative Nature-Based Tourism focuses particularly on micro, small and medium tourism enterprises. Support is planned through capacity building, access to finance, business development and stronger market integration. Women-led, youth-led and community-based enterprises near protected areas are specific priorities. The programme therefore aims to make tourism spending more closely connected with local economic opportunities while strengthening the natural landscapes that attract international visitors.

• KAZA connects five Southern African countries through one conservation landscape.
• The initiative focuses on regenerative nature-based tourism.
• Tourism MSMEs are central to the programme.
• Women, young entrepreneurs and protected-area communities receive particular attention.
• Business development is being connected directly with biodiversity conservation.

Why Does the Scale of KAZA Matter for Nature Based Tourism?

KAZA operates at a scale rarely found in nature-based tourism. Official KAZA research places the transfrontier landscape at approximately 520,000 square kilometres, spanning parts of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It includes 19 national parks covering around 160,900 square kilometres, alongside game reserves, wildlife management areas, forests, conservancies and World Heritage properties. Approximately 2.5 million to three million people live across the broader landscape. These figures explain why regenerative tourism matters beyond wildlife protection. Tourism development within such a large inhabited ecosystem has direct implications for jobs, small businesses, community livelihoods and conservation financing.

• KAZA extends across approximately 520,000 sq km.
• It covers territory in five countries.
• The landscape contains 19 national parks.
• Around 2.5 million to three million people live within the wider KAZA landscape.
• Rivers, wetlands, woodland and savannah support a diverse nature-tourism economy.

How Could Botswana Turn Maun and the Okavango Gateway into a Stronger Tourism Economy?

Botswana tourism sits close to the centre of the new initiative because Maun hosted its regional launch. The country is also strengthening the institutional foundations of its tourism economy. Botswana launched a Tourism Statistics Dashboard in April 2026 to improve measurement of visitor arrivals, spending, length of stay and wider sector performance. Government reporting also showed more than 1,000 tourism licences had been issued to mobile safari operators, accommodation businesses and travel agencies in the North West District by March 2026. Botswana is additionally reviewing its Tourism Act as it pursues greater product diversification, investment and employment creation.

• Maun hosted the September 2026 R-NBT regional gathering.
• Botswana introduced a new Tourism Statistics Dashboard in 2026.
• More than 1,000 tourism licences had been issued in the North West District by March.
• The Tourism Act is undergoing review.
• Diversification and community participation are increasingly important to tourism development.

Why Could Zambia Gain from Stronger KAZA Regenerative Tourism Links?

Zambia tourism provides one of the clearest examples of why stronger regional tourism integration matters in 2026. The Ministry of Tourism recorded 1,033,284 international tourist arrivals during the first half of 2026, down 6.6% from 1,106,559 during the corresponding 2025 period. Visits to national parks, heritage sites and museums reached 243,864, while tourism-sector revenue reported by the ministry totalled K177.82 million. Zambia nevertheless continues to pursue an international-arrival target of 2.5 million for 2026. Stronger KAZA products could complement national destination marketing by connecting conservation landscapes, local enterprises and multi-country visitor journeys.

• H1 2026 international arrivals reached 1,033,284.
• Arrivals were 6.6% below H1 2025.
• Tourism-site visits totalled 243,864.
• Reported tourism-sector revenue stood at K177.82 million.
• Zambia targets 2.5 million international arrivals for 2026.

How Is Angola Using the Okavango Landscape to Develop Nature Based Tourism?

Angola tourism adds a less-established but strategically important dimension to KAZA’s cross-border visitor economy. In 2026, Angola promoted the third edition of Raid Okavango, scheduled for 5–12 September and designed to showcase the tourism potential of the country’s Okavango region. Government information described the route as connecting the headwaters of the Cubango River in Huambo with eastern landscapes in Moxico, highlighting natural, cultural and scenic resources while encouraging investment and sustainable development. This gives regenerative tourism a significant role: strengthening smaller tourism businesses can help convert Angola’s ecological resources into structured visitor experiences while connecting tourism income more directly with conservation and communities.

• Angola is one of KAZA’s five partner countries.
• The Okavango system provides an important ecological tourism asset.
• Raid Okavango 2026 promoted an ecological tourism route.
• The initiative connected natural and cultural tourism resources.
• Regenerative tourism can support greater local participation in emerging destinations.

Why Is Namibia Important to KAZA Wildlife Corridors and Cross Border Tourism?

Namibia tourism provides an important physical connection within KAZA. Namibia’s environment ministry says the country’s KAZA territory plays a pivotal role in wildlife migration between Angola, Botswana and Zambia. Its north-eastern protected areas also support tourism routes through the Kavango and Zambezi regions. Bwabwata National Park alone covers approximately 6,100 square kilometres, with tourism activity involving private operators and conservancy-operated facilities. Namibia’s Zambezi Region links towards Botswana and Zambia through border crossings and towards major regional tourism areas. This combination of conservation corridors, community enterprises and road-based tourism gives Namibia a particularly important role in developing connected KAZA travel experiences.

• North-eastern Namibia forms a strategic part of KAZA.
• Namibia provides wildlife corridors connecting neighbouring states.
• Bwabwata National Park covers about 6,100 sq km.
• Community-operated tourism facilities already operate within the landscape.
• Road and border connections support regional itineraries.

How Could Zimbabwe Use KAZA to Strengthen Victoria Falls and Regional Travel?

Zimbabwe tourism occupies an important eastern section of the KAZA tourism system, with Victoria Falls providing one of its best-known international gateways. Cross-border mobility already has a practical tourism mechanism through the KAZA UniVisa. Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry states that eligible travellers can use the visa for access to Zimbabwe and Zambia for up to 30 days, with day trips to Botswana’s Chobe National Park through Kazungula also permitted under its conditions. This existing travel framework is particularly relevant to regenerative tourism because easier multi-destination journeys can connect established visitor gateways with smaller tourism enterprises and community experiences across the wider landscape.

• Zimbabwe is one of KAZA’s five partners.
• Victoria Falls is a major regional tourism gateway.
• The KAZA UniVisa connects eligible travel between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
• The arrangement permits qualifying day trips to Botswana’s Chobe area.
• Cross-border mobility can help distribute tourism demand across destinations.

How Can Community Tourism Turn Conservation into Local Jobs Across KAZA?

The economic significance of KAZA regenerative tourism lies in how visitor spending can circulate through local economies. KAZA is not an empty wilderness: official research estimates that roughly 2.5 million to three million people live across its wider landscape. The September 2026 initiative therefore places MSMEs, women, young entrepreneurs and communities near protected areas at the centre of tourism development. Finance, skills, business development and market access can help smaller operators participate in accommodation, guiding, cultural experiences and other parts of the visitor economy. The model seeks to connect viable tourism enterprises with the long-term protection of the natural assets on which those businesses depend.

• Millions of people live within the wider conservation landscape.
• Local tourism businesses can broaden the distribution of visitor spending.
• Women-led and youth-led businesses receive explicit programme attention.
• Tourism can create economic incentives connected with conservation.
• Stronger MSMEs can diversify experiences beyond major attractions.

Could Regenerative Tourism Make Southern Africa More Competitive for International Travellers?

The strongest travel impact could come from treating KAZA as an interconnected Southern Africa tourism landscape rather than five separate destination products. Its tourism geography already combines the Okavango and Zambezi river systems, Botswana’s wildlife areas, north-eastern Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls gateway and Angola’s developing Okavango routes. KAZA’s formal objective is to establish a world-class transfrontier conservation and tourism destination through sustainable development. The new regenerative initiative adds an enterprise dimension by seeking stronger local businesses, improved market integration and conservation benefits. For travellers, that could gradually expand the range of locally delivered nature, cultural and community experiences available across regional itineraries.

• KAZA can support multi-country Southern Africa tourism.
• Existing gateways already connect several important wildlife destinations.
• The KAZA UniVisa provides an established example of travel facilitation.
• Local enterprise development could broaden tourism products.
• Regenerative tourism links destination competitiveness with conservation and community benefits.

Conclusion

Botswana joins Zambia and more destinations as KAZA launches regenerative tourism to boost jobs and conservation, creating a stronger connection between travel, nature and local prosperity. Tourism in the KAZA region not only helps to boost the economic status of local communities and countries, but more importantly helps to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It further helps to achieve the objectives of the Aspiration 2063 of the African Union which seeks to restore, reconstruct and revitalize the lost tourism potential in the region. Overall, the program is focused on promoting community-based conservation and tourism as a means to achieve long-term transformative change for Botswana, Zambia and the rest of the region.