Staff Writer
President Hage Geingob on Monday that government in collaboration with the Tourism and Hospitality sector will conduct a targeted International Tourism revival initiative from 15 July to 15 August 2020.
“This initiative will look to accommodate a limited number of tourists, who will be determined in consultation with the private sector, from a carefully selected low risk market that has potential to contribute towards our tourism sector that employs over 100,000 Namibians. Modalities for this initiative will be announced in coming weeks and this trial will inform and strengthen public sector preparations for the imminent reopening of Points of Entry under stage 5,” said Geingob.
According to health minister Shangula Kalumbi, as part of the guidelines for stage 4 of the state of emergency, all tourists traveling to Namibia must present a negative SARS-COV-2 PCR test result, valid for 72 hours before entering Namibia and submit to mandatory testing, upon arrival.
“All tourists must submit to mandatory, 14-day quarantine at a Government certified establishment, at own cost. Allow one incubation cycle at the end of the initiative, for monitoring and assessment,” said Kalumbi.
Hospitality Association of Namibia’s (HAN) Chief Executive Officer, Gitta Paetzold said although the sector was grateful about the government, it will wait on more details on the government plans.
“We were hoping for an earlier opening, but we are grateful that we now have a targeted date that we can work with. Our fear is that the two weeks quarantine when tourists arrive will not be conducive as it will be inconvenient and expensive as most of them are here for only three weeks. Most might opt to come the following year,” she said.
“We are hopeful and grateful that we are able to move forward and we will continue to engage government. We currently don’t have details of the trial opening for July-August from targeted countries and under what conditions this will be held.”
The local tourism industry has been hard hit by the closure of the country’s boarders as part of government’s measures to control the spread of COVID-19, with large hotels being some of the biggest business casualties.
