Tourism experiences serious challenges
Namibia's tourism sector continues to face serious challenges because of inexperienced staff, lack of readily available capital for investment and the high cost of operations.
This is according to the latest FNB/FENATA Travel Index, which says that a lack of planning and foresight within the industry is hindering the growth of a largely untapped Namibian market.
Respondents indicated that planning for future investments and employing more staff had been put on hold since discussions of the New Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework (NEEEF) surfaced.
“Arbitrary politics, a growing crime rate, corruption, poaching, bad water crisis management, poor service, delivery and exorbitant commodity price hikes are of huge concern,” the report points out.
The respondents also felt that increased marketing of the southern towns was needed in order to give a more representative view of the country, and that crime around most tourist centres in urban and rural Namibia had increased.
According to the report respondents believed that unless government officials become more approachable and residents understood the importance of customer service, the industry's growth would continue to be hindered. The report indicated that the third quarter of last year recorded real growth of 3.4% compared to the third quarter in 2015.
“In nominal terms, however, growth rate edged to 11.5% over the same period indicating the strong inflationary impacts that can skew the index.” The growth in the index was supported mainly by a weaker domestic currency, which made travel to Namibia cheaper for European and American tourists.
The Bed Occupancy Index edged higher to 10.4% quarter on quarter while increases in the load factor increased by 26.7% quarter on quarter as more people travelled to the country. According to the report, 58.9% of the respondents recorded an improvement in business as attested by their perception of tourist arrivals which moved up to 3.9 from 1.2 index points.
With tourist arrivals on the increase, and a weaker domestic currency, 61.2% of the respondents noted good revenue flows, according to the report. The report said the positive increase in market activity was further corroborated by additional hires with 33% of respondents stating they had to increase their labour force - implicitly to cater for more business. That was the experience of lodge owners and tour operators.
In terms of capital expenditure, 51.5% of respondents stated that it had increased during the third quarter to cater for repairs, replacements and new investments.
This is often common during the third quarter as the winter season calls for additional business reinvestments based on previous third-quarter surveys.
Looking forward, the Sentiment Index points towards a more positive fourth quarter. The index edged up to 3.5 from 1.8 a year ago mainly on the back of an expectation that tourist arrivals would increase in the final quarter of the year.
ELLANIE SMIT
This is according to the latest FNB/FENATA Travel Index, which says that a lack of planning and foresight within the industry is hindering the growth of a largely untapped Namibian market.
Respondents indicated that planning for future investments and employing more staff had been put on hold since discussions of the New Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework (NEEEF) surfaced.
“Arbitrary politics, a growing crime rate, corruption, poaching, bad water crisis management, poor service, delivery and exorbitant commodity price hikes are of huge concern,” the report points out.
The respondents also felt that increased marketing of the southern towns was needed in order to give a more representative view of the country, and that crime around most tourist centres in urban and rural Namibia had increased.
According to the report respondents believed that unless government officials become more approachable and residents understood the importance of customer service, the industry's growth would continue to be hindered. The report indicated that the third quarter of last year recorded real growth of 3.4% compared to the third quarter in 2015.
“In nominal terms, however, growth rate edged to 11.5% over the same period indicating the strong inflationary impacts that can skew the index.” The growth in the index was supported mainly by a weaker domestic currency, which made travel to Namibia cheaper for European and American tourists.
The Bed Occupancy Index edged higher to 10.4% quarter on quarter while increases in the load factor increased by 26.7% quarter on quarter as more people travelled to the country. According to the report, 58.9% of the respondents recorded an improvement in business as attested by their perception of tourist arrivals which moved up to 3.9 from 1.2 index points.
With tourist arrivals on the increase, and a weaker domestic currency, 61.2% of the respondents noted good revenue flows, according to the report. The report said the positive increase in market activity was further corroborated by additional hires with 33% of respondents stating they had to increase their labour force - implicitly to cater for more business. That was the experience of lodge owners and tour operators.
In terms of capital expenditure, 51.5% of respondents stated that it had increased during the third quarter to cater for repairs, replacements and new investments.
This is often common during the third quarter as the winter season calls for additional business reinvestments based on previous third-quarter surveys.
Looking forward, the Sentiment Index points towards a more positive fourth quarter. The index edged up to 3.5 from 1.8 a year ago mainly on the back of an expectation that tourist arrivals would increase in the final quarter of the year.
ELLANIE SMIT
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