Tourism dodges recession

Tourism seems to have escaped the brunt of the recession felt across the country last year, performing exceptionally well. Namibia was able to maintain its good results it attained in 2016, with the overall room occupancy reaching 58.5% last year. This is only 1% lower than 2016. The central and southern regions performed slightly better, both having above 60% room occupancy rates while the north and the coastal areas had 53.3% and 57.8% room occupancy rates. According to the CEO of the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN), Gitta Paetzold, the first two quarters of last year were on average higher than during 2016.





This indicated a shift towards balancing out the load to the traditional low season. Paetzold said this trend must be pursued to alleviate the pressure on the high season in the second half of the year.

The domestic market, which constituted just under a third off all occupancies in 2016, seemed to have experienced a dip of about 4% in 2017. A total of 203 270 (28.8%) Namibian visitors were recorded.

Namibia experienced a 4% increase in German-speaking tourists, with over 27% (190 884) of visitors coming from Europe. France, Italy, the UK, Spain, Portugal and the US all showed a slight increase.

According to Paetzold this is proof that the European market still holds great potential for Namibia and remains the key source market for the industry.

Visitors from South Africa decreased by about 1.5% from 2016 to 11.5% in 2017. A total of 80 901 visitors were recorded.

“The performance of both the domestic and South African market seems reflective of the tight economic grip both countries and their people find themselves in,” said Paetzold.

According to her, as a way forward HAN initiated a tourism stakeholder meeting this week where about 30 selected people from the tour operation, car rental and accommodation sectors and the NTB came together to discuss ways of optimising utilisation of Namibia's tourism infrastructure.

Infrastructure, in terms of roads, air access and services at immigration points, is a key factor that will influence Namibia's efficiency in rolling out its tourism services to the international community.

The stakeholders are convinced that greater interaction, management of and flexibility in the reservation systems may allow for occupancy to reach a level of 80% in high season.

“Namibia remains a very popular destination, with a recent ranking by the international institution Bloomberg listing it as part of the 20 most popular destinations worldwide and together we need to ensure that we explore the opportunities and challenges this brings. A recent ranking by Forbes Magazine even rated Namibia as one of the most affordable travel destinations in Africa, another important accolade.”

Paetzold said it is reassuring that some international travel experts view Namibia as a very affordable destination to travel to. This makes Namibia very competitive in international tourism.

“Naturally pricing always depends on economy of scale, and type of travel, and it should be remembered that what makes Namibia as travel destination so special is the fact that our country in fact offers a great variety of products and packages, catering for both the high-quality, exclusive taste, as well as the traveller touring on a shoestring budget.”

While Namibia has managed to retain the flow of tourists, the seasonal spread is extremely important, as this helps lessen the pressure on service providers in the high season from August to October, said Paetzold.

During this time Namibia is now already known to be “sold out”, with operators finding it extremely difficult to get confirmation on forward bookings for the high season.

In discussions with key tourism stakeholders this week it was agreed that more flexibility and creativity in packaging Namibia, both in terms of offering highlights in different seasons, and amending the tour itineraries to offer diverse circular tours, would address the bottleneck situation in some of the hotspots of Namibia.

Stakeholders agreed that while a general “round tour” to include all of Namibia is still a bestseller, the fact that Namibia has many repeater tourists allows for venturing into more specialised packages. This will allow visitors to delve more into experiencing a place, its people, cultures and the environment.

Some of the new focal areas Namibia can and should focus on are developing new tourism niches and packages, which should include the showcasing of the Namib, the country's geological richness and wealth in gemstones and adventures with small miners could also be a part of a tour itinerary and add to the diversity of Namibia's tourism product.

ELLANIE SMIT