Tujoromajo Kasuto
THE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB), Digu //Naobeb, says the recovery strategy for this financial year is more premised on digital marketing for which a new website is under development for launching in March.
On how financial matters are going after NTB last year ran out of money to pay salaries and upkeep as of last November, he says the Government has offered an additional N$ 8 million for the current financial year ending March 2022, which will keep the operations going till then. For the 2022/2023 financial year he says the NTB has drafted the budget, which was submitted to the line ministry for consideration.
But due to Covid-19 uncertainty they will still need Government intervention in addition to the N$ 3 million provision that is made in the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) budget for the new financial year, while NTB projects are to generate about N$ 20 million through levies if all goes well.
He says the board in 2021 generated over N$14 million adding that regarding the rival measures for the year, it is striving at increase domestic travel noting that for sure domestic tourism remains very relevant and they shall soon embark upon Easter holiday promotions, for which the industry has offered specials which are valid till end of June.
The COVID-19 pandemic had devastated Namibia’s tourism sector to an extent that NTB only generated N$3 million in levies from October 2020 to March 2021, which was a massive drop compared to N$17 million the board generated between October 2019 and March 2020, before the onset of the pandemic.
