Tricks for small-town tourism boom unveiled
The Tourism Networking Conference held yesterday, as a prelude to the annual Namibia Tourism Expo, was a great success and speakers shared their experience and knowledge with delegates.
The CEO of the Official Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape (WESGRO), Tim Harris, yesterday said small towns need to use what exists in their towns and market these as tourist attractions.
Presenting his topic of 'Small Town Tourism' at the Tourism Networking Conference that precedes the annual Namibia Tourism Expo, Harris further said that small towns need to sell their unique setting points to aspiring visitors. According to him, small towns can use social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to market themselves. He said for them as a small entity, they find social media to be the right platform for this purpose.
He said being part of events is also another way that small towns can use to boost tourism. According to him, their agency uses very rigorous criteria to choose events that they sponsor and are part of.
He also encouraged small towns to create partnerships, making an example of 'From the Cape to Namibia'.
“Tourists don't see borders,” he said, adding that when tourists come from Cape Town to Windhoek, they are looking forward to experiencing attractions the region has to offer.
Harris also encouraged small towns to measure their success and monitor their progress. “We are very disciplined about reviewing whether our projects are working,” he said.
He said social media helps a small entity like theirs with a small budget to measure if a project is working or if it needs to be killed, using tools such as users' feedback.
Eenhana town council CEO Walde Ndevashiya, whose town is one of the small towns competing for the Small Town of the Year title at this year's expo, called on the tourism industry to support efforts by small towns.
He said very little support is given to these towns, adding that they invest in different products but little interest is shown in them.
“At the north we had the Omagongo Festival, we have the annual Totem Expo happening at Oshakati and in my own place we have the Omaludi Festival that celebrates the showing of cattle, but little interest is shown. I think the whole industry needs to come out and support the small towns,' he said.
Namibia's opportunity
In her official remarks yesterday, deputy tourism permanent secretary Seimy Christoph-Shidute said since Namibia's election to the United Nations Word Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) governing body late last year, the country attended the first council meeting last week and some priority areas adopted during the meeting were innovation and digital transformation.
Other areas include investment and entrepreneurship, education and employment, and safety and the environment.
She said although the government sits on the UNWTO Executive Council, there will be roundtables created and she called on the private sector to participate to ensure Namibia benefits from this opportunity before their four-year tenure ends in 2021.
Digital tourism
Lenny Kunga, Visa's senior director for merchant sales and solutions for sub-Saharan Africa, who spoke on instruction of expo partner FNB Namibia, said tourism is one sector that intensely deals with e-commerce.
He gave an example of a person in Russia or China who may want to visit Namibia and before they book their hotel in the country, they want an option to pay at home.
According to him, people want convenience and said Visa, through its system used by banks such as FNB Namibia, is providing that platform.
According to him, the inability to offer options such as paying online may hamper the benefits of tourism.
However, he said people want transactions security too, which he said Visa is constantly monitoring.
“From a security perspective, we always have constant monitoring,” he said.
In his welcoming remarks, Old Mutual Namibia's marketing executive Ndangi Katoma highlighted that the company is pleased to support the tourism networking conference that interrogates small things that matter, “to enable us as a country to enhance our tourism offering, from conservation, service delivery, small town tourism, responsible tourism to technology, because these all do matter”.
Eco Awards Namibia's Hazel Milne listed their basic criteria, which looks at issues such as management and conservation, among many others.
Ndama Nakashole
Presenting his topic of 'Small Town Tourism' at the Tourism Networking Conference that precedes the annual Namibia Tourism Expo, Harris further said that small towns need to sell their unique setting points to aspiring visitors. According to him, small towns can use social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to market themselves. He said for them as a small entity, they find social media to be the right platform for this purpose.
He said being part of events is also another way that small towns can use to boost tourism. According to him, their agency uses very rigorous criteria to choose events that they sponsor and are part of.
He also encouraged small towns to create partnerships, making an example of 'From the Cape to Namibia'.
“Tourists don't see borders,” he said, adding that when tourists come from Cape Town to Windhoek, they are looking forward to experiencing attractions the region has to offer.
Harris also encouraged small towns to measure their success and monitor their progress. “We are very disciplined about reviewing whether our projects are working,” he said.
He said social media helps a small entity like theirs with a small budget to measure if a project is working or if it needs to be killed, using tools such as users' feedback.
Eenhana town council CEO Walde Ndevashiya, whose town is one of the small towns competing for the Small Town of the Year title at this year's expo, called on the tourism industry to support efforts by small towns.
He said very little support is given to these towns, adding that they invest in different products but little interest is shown in them.
“At the north we had the Omagongo Festival, we have the annual Totem Expo happening at Oshakati and in my own place we have the Omaludi Festival that celebrates the showing of cattle, but little interest is shown. I think the whole industry needs to come out and support the small towns,' he said.
Namibia's opportunity
In her official remarks yesterday, deputy tourism permanent secretary Seimy Christoph-Shidute said since Namibia's election to the United Nations Word Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) governing body late last year, the country attended the first council meeting last week and some priority areas adopted during the meeting were innovation and digital transformation.
Other areas include investment and entrepreneurship, education and employment, and safety and the environment.
She said although the government sits on the UNWTO Executive Council, there will be roundtables created and she called on the private sector to participate to ensure Namibia benefits from this opportunity before their four-year tenure ends in 2021.
Digital tourism
Lenny Kunga, Visa's senior director for merchant sales and solutions for sub-Saharan Africa, who spoke on instruction of expo partner FNB Namibia, said tourism is one sector that intensely deals with e-commerce.
He gave an example of a person in Russia or China who may want to visit Namibia and before they book their hotel in the country, they want an option to pay at home.
According to him, people want convenience and said Visa, through its system used by banks such as FNB Namibia, is providing that platform.
According to him, the inability to offer options such as paying online may hamper the benefits of tourism.
However, he said people want transactions security too, which he said Visa is constantly monitoring.
“From a security perspective, we always have constant monitoring,” he said.
In his welcoming remarks, Old Mutual Namibia's marketing executive Ndangi Katoma highlighted that the company is pleased to support the tourism networking conference that interrogates small things that matter, “to enable us as a country to enhance our tourism offering, from conservation, service delivery, small town tourism, responsible tourism to technology, because these all do matter”.
Eco Awards Namibia's Hazel Milne listed their basic criteria, which looks at issues such as management and conservation, among many others.
Ndama Nakashole
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