CHAMWE KAIRA
Namibia’s hospitality sector recorded its strongest July performance since before the Covid-19 pandemic, with national room occupancy rising to 62.63% in July 2026, according to the latest data from the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN).
The July occupancy rate was 3.03 percentage points above the 59.60% recorded in July 2019 and also surpassed the 61.07% recorded in July 2025, indicating continued recovery and strengthening demand for accommodation across the country.
The performance followed a strong second quarter, when national room occupancy reached 57.18% across 140 reporting properties, making the second quarter the strongest second quarter on record for Namibia’s formal accommodation sector.
Second quarter occupancy was up from 52.47% in the corresponding period of 2025 and remained above the pre-pandemic second quarter 2019 benchmark. A total of 252 906 bed-nights were sold during the quarter.
July continued the momentum, with 77 107 beds sold across 67 reporting properties and national bed occupancy reaching 55.84%. Leisure travel accounted for 97.26% of all arrivals, the highest leisure share recorded during 2026 to date.
The northern region led the country’s occupancy performance in July, recording 66.43%, up 4.72 percentage points from 61.71% in July 2025.
The strong performance was driven largely by peak-season demand around Etosha National Park and the Kunene corridor, where dry-season conditions typically attract large numbers of safari and wildlife tourists.
The coastal region also recorded strong demand, with occupancy reaching 65.32%, compared to 62.95% a year earlier. The Walvis Bay-Swakopmund corridor continued to benefit from leisure travel, while business travel accounted for 4.41% of beds sold in the region.
The southern region recorded occupancy of 60.25%, with destinations such as Sossusvlei and the Fish River Canyon continuing to anchor leisure demand.
The central region, however, experienced a marked decline, with occupancy falling to 50.99% from 58.07% in July 2025.
The decline was attributed to the seasonal contraction in business and government travel during the school holiday period, which has a particularly significant impact on Windhoek.
Business and conference travel accounted for only 3.93% of beds sold in the central region in July, compared with more than 14% during the same month in 2025.
Despite the regional weakness in the central region, the national performance remained strong, supported by sustained international leisure demand.
European visitors continued to dominate Namibia’s accommodation market, accounting for more than 65% of all beds sold in July.
The German-speaking DACH market — comprising Germany, Austria and Switzerland — was the largest individual source market, accounting for 33.23% of beds sold.
Benelux contributed 9.98%, followed by France at 7.47%, Italy at 4.35%, the United States and Canada at 4.36%, and the United Kingdom and Ireland at 3.74%.
The data points to increasing concentration of demand from European premium safari markets. The combined DACH and Benelux share reached 43.21% of beds sold in July, described in the data as the most concentrated European demand pattern recorded for any July.
“The strengthening DACH market has also been linked to improved air connectivity, with the data indicating that Edelweiss Air’s Zurich service is supporting peak-season bookings. The July figures suggest that Namibia’s leisure tourism market has moved beyond a simple post-pandemic recovery phase, with demand during the country’s peak dry-season period exceeding pre-pandemic levels,” Simonis Storm said in a comment on the statistics.
