Celebrating tourism successes

Hundreds of stakeholders in the tourism sector have gathered to celebrate the successes achieved during the past year. Yet another successful two-day tourism networking event was hosted last week in Windhoek in the form of a tourism congress, a trade forum and a tourism awards gala dinner. This year the event was hosted under the theme of 'Tourism begins at home' and stakeholders gathered to talk business, formulate new concepts and ideas and ultimately celebrate the successes of the past year.The Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) hosted 150 people at the tourism congress, while 250 people, gathered at the tourism awards gala dinner during which the tourism personality of the year was also announced. “An event of this magnitude and style is something that HAN enjoys to host, but would never be able to do on its own, so from the outset and on behalf of the HAN executive and its members, we would like to thank our partners and sponsors most sincerely for having joined the tourism family and (being) committed to work towards the development and growth of this sector, and enable us to celebrate its successes and achievements every year,” said Gitta Paetzold CEO of HAN. According to her the tourism congress this year took a completely new format, with a roundtable platform to not only identify challenges and bottlenecks hindering growth, but also joining hands to find synergies among all stakeholders and motivate everyone to work as one united team to brand, market and sell Namibia as a tourism destination of choice.“Another way of living our motto for this year of 'Tourism begins at home' was the presence and showcasing of Namibia's diversity and productivity through the presence of truly Namibian producers in terms of arts, crafts, cosmetics and beverages,” said Paetzold. For the first time the wines sponsored for each table at the tourism gala dinner was all truly Namibian, with a selection of local winemakers making available their produce to enable key tourism stakeholders and hoteliers to taste of Namibian wines. The joint-venture community lodge of the year award went to //Huab under Canvas, while the owner of the Elegant Collection, Jörn Dedig, was announced as the hotelier of the year. The HAN personality of the year went to the Micheletti Brothers, Ruggero and Simone, while Werner Ewald from Bannerman Resources Namibia was announced as the tourism personality of the year. ELLANIE SMIT

Celebrating tourism successes

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-16

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Celebrating tourism successes

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-16

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