This paper draws on the tourism system framework to examine the problems and prospects of urban tourism in Gaborone and Maun, Botswana. These are young centres that have a growing number of tourist attractions, facilities and services that could promote urban tourism. The findings of this study, based on both secondary and primary data sources, indicate that urban tourism in Botswana is relatively undeveloped because there is no substantial domestic market, tourist attractions in urban centres are poorly developed and marketed, and city development plans and the national tourism policy are not integrated. The study concludes that, for tourism to become a viable economic sector in the country, urban tourism should be integrated into Botswana's tourism policy and city planning.

This paper reports a comparative study of urban tourism development in two areas, Maun and Gaborone, located in northern and southeastern Botswana. More specifically, the study evaluated residents' tourism awareness and its importance in their lives; assessed economic benefits and employment derived from tourism; and examined impacts of tourism and development issues as perceived by the residents. Data were collected via household surveys and key informant interviews between June 2003 and April 2004. Findings indicate that both study sites bear some similarities in terms of infrastructural development and rapid population growth. The study also found that only a small proportion of the local population is employed within the tourism sector and that the vast majority of tourism-related enterprises are foreign-owned. Various recommendations are outlined to increase citizen participation in urban tourism development, most notably in cultural heritage tourism.

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For the last three and half decades, Botswana has been widely acclaimed to be one of sub-Saharan Africa's longest and most stable liberal democracies, coupled with and sustained by a growing economy. One of the major contradictions, however, within this development scenario, has been the neglect of environmental problems in the country in general, and urban environmental issues in particular. Part of the problem fueling the misconception of environmental issues in Botswana is the state's domination of the country's environmental agenda. This is linked to the power disjunction in decision-making and policy processes between state and nonstate actors over the most appropriate course of action to tackle the problems. Without adopting appropriate analytical frameworks, it is possible that the problem of urban environmental mismanagement in Botswana will persist. This article examines some of the major urban environmental issues in Botswana from neighborhood, citywide, and urban-rural interface perspectives. Further, the elite theory of public policy is used to explain constraints on policy change in the urban environmental management arena in Botswana.