Namibia off to Dubai expo

ELLANIE SMITWINDHOEKNamibia will join more than 190 countries at the Dubai World Expo 2020, scheduled to take place from 1 October to March 2022 in Dubai.The expo was originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 to 10 April 2021, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.Despite the postponement, the organisers are keeping the Expo 2020 name for marketing and branding purposes. It is the first time a world expo has been postponed to a later date rather than cancelled.Tourism ministry spokesperson Romeo Muyunda said the ministry is coordinating the sector’s participation at the expo in collaboration with the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) and the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB).The ministry is, therefore, calling on tourism sector companies interested to showcase their product offerings and projects for investment to submit digital marketing material or product promotional material to be showcased at the expo.He said that the Namibian pavilion will showcase not only tourism investment opportunities, but for all the major sectors of the Namibian economy as highlighted by the NIPDB, organised in sectoral themes.“The display space is, therefore, limited.”Muyunda said to ensure greater visibility, a digital platform and dedicated television screen(s) will be used to display all tourism destination marketing information and investment opportunities.“We have in this regard partnered with the Namibia Travel and Tourism Forum to support the digitalisation of the tourism sector information and the Namibian pavilion digital displays.”Enormous taskMuyanda said the digitisation of Namibia’s presence at the expo was not put on tender, as there was no need for one.“The digitisation of our pavilion was a generous offer without any money involved, but merely just assistance. We are taking the lead as the regulator of the sector, but we are working closely with NTB.”Meanwhile, the ministry introduced the recently appointed director of tourism and gaming, Sebulon Chicalu, effective 1 July.“He is charged with an enormous task to spearhead the recovery of the tourism sector, create strong private sector engagement and coordinate support with other ministries, the United Nations and Southern African Development Community (SADC) agencies responsible for tourism,” Muyunda said.According to him, Chicalu is passionate about creating a conducive tourism entrepreneurship environment for sustainable tourism sector transformation, develop tourism market intelligence capacity, support a resilient domestic tourism market and realise the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) tourism Univisa for Namibia and intra-Africa regional tourism.“The ministry has confidence in his strategic strength and innovative abilities and that he will succeed in his assignment with the support of all of us for inclusive growth of the tourism sector.”

Namibia off to Dubai expo

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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Namibia off to Dubai expo

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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