Namibians have taken heed of government’s call to support domestic tourism by visiting local hospitality areas, The Brief can reveal.
Figures released by the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) show that the majority of people who visited various hospitality establishments in January were Namibians.
“During January 2022, 52.9% of the visitors at local establishments were Namibian. Majority of the foreign tourists who visited local establishments during January 2022 travelled from South Africa (10.0%), Benelux (2.7%), France (2.6%), the UK and Ireland (2.3%) and European countries excluding France, Germany, Spain and Italy (3.1%),” said HAN.
The latest development comes as the United Nations World Tourism Organisation is encouraging domestic tourism to help many destinations recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic, while at the same time safeguarding jobs, protecting livelihoods and allowing the social benefits tourism offers to also return.
According to the Hospitality Association 90.7% of foreign national who visited Namibia came for leisure, 6.4% for business and 2.9% for conferences.
“Rest camps posted the highest occupancy rate (40.7%), followed by boutique hotels (27.5%), guesthouses (26.6%), guest farms (24.8%) and lodges (17.9%).”
HAN noted that hospitality establishments in the central area recorded the highest occupancy rate (27.5%), followed by the coastal area (24.7%) and both southern and northern areas recording about 15% in January 2022.
From 56 nationwide establishments, a national occupancy rate of 18.5% was recorded in January 2022, compared to 27.8% in December 2021 according to HAN, the lowest occupancy rate observed since the pandemic outbreak as January 2020 and 2021 recorded a national occupancy rate of 7.7% and 20.27% respectively.
“Namibia currently has 14.5% of the population fully vaccinated. Increasing the vaccination rate amongst our population will provide foreigners with peace of mind in travelling to Namibia. Additional and well-targeted marketing to Namibia’s main tourist partners would also go a long way in attracting foreigners to our country,” Simonis Storm said.
The latest development follows efforts by the Namibia Tourism Board to engage tourism operators to consider sweeping changes on accommodation pricing, to start charging per room as opposed to per person, amid concerns the existing pricing regime is inhibiting tourism growth and costly for the Namibian traveling public.
