Hertta-Maria Amutenja
Namibia’s tourist arrival numbers have increased by 37.3 percent since 2021 and has seen the country receiving a total 243 466 tourists in 2022.
Speaking at the official launch of the Tourism Expo Calendar Events for 2023, Minister of Environment,Forestry and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta said it is commendable considering the negative impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, on the tourism sector globally and in Namibia since its outbreak in late 2019.
“These visitor numbers however remain very low for this country as it only represents about 15 percent of the pre-Covid -19 numbers (1,595,973 tourism arrivals) and too low to regain pre-Covid employment numbers in the sector. As a country, we need to increase and diversify Namibia’s tourism product offering. You will agree with me that Namibia offers more than just the famous eco-tourism, photography, wildlife viewing, etc. I would like to use this opportunity to call on the tourism sector players to promote and offer cultural and heritage tourism experiences and our Namibian gastronomy,” said Shifeta.
In 2020 Namibia received 169 565 tourists and 232 756 in 2021.
Additionally, he announced that Namibia will again host the next 5th edition of Africa Youth in Tourism Summit this year towards end of May.
Last year, the summit supported Namibia’s branding efforts and helped re-position the country as a preferred destination ready for business post COVID-19 for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Events (MICE), leisure and business travel.
The Summit also assisted in building global market confidence in the destination and it focused on innovation and youth entrepreneurship which will help the country build the tourism knowledge economy for Namibia and its COVID-19 tourism recovery strategies.
The Ministry has developed the Tourism Recovery Plan to ensure that the country achieves a swift recovery of the tourism sector in the next two years.
“The national Tourism Recovery Plan 2022 to 2024 is underpinned by five grand Strategic Interventions (SIs), namely; Policy Matters and COVID-19 Tourism Regulations and Measures, Aggressive Online Marketing and Promotion Campaigns, Attract New Geo-and Special Segments of the Global Travel Markets, Increased Tourism Market Intelligence through Statistics, Data Collection and Analysis and Improve Accessibility and Connectivity to Namibia,”the Minister said.
