Saturday 12 April 2014

Tourism sector growth needs everybody's involvement

The tourism sector shows signs of improvement with various indicators, such as bed and room occupancy rates recovering compared to the previous year.
The latest Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) monthly report states the bed and room occupancy rates increased to 40% at the beginning of the year, compared to the 27% a year earlier while bed occupancy rates rose from 15% to 34% during the same period.
“Since these rates exceeded the rates of the base month of January 2008, the index increased to 110 and 113 for room and bed occupancy rates, respectively, showing an improvement in the tourism industry,” states the report in part.
Namibia accounted for 46% of the occupants, followed by visitors from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, with 15% and South Africa with 13% while visitors from the whole of Europe accounted for 28% of all occupants. Only one percent came from Sadc countries.
To keep the sector growing, Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) chief public relations officer, Romeo Muyunda, says they intend to engage in aggressive marketing strategies to attract tourists and utilise the recommendations that emanated from last year’s World Tourism and Travel Summit, which was hosted in Windhoek.
The ministry will further engage with its stakeholders particularly private partners, to strive for a common goal. It also intends to sensitise the public on its role and get the community actively involved.
“In line with the National Tourism Growth and Development Strategy, Namibia had been chosen as the most competitive tourist destination in sub-Saharan Africa by 2017 and as such, we expect to attract more tourists by promoting Namibia as a preferred tourist destination. We will continue to regulate the industry and review the existing legislation,” Muyunda asserts.
Last year was subjected to slow tourism activity on a yearly basis, partly ascribed to frail economic activities in the Euro Zone. However, this improved on a quarterly basis due to seasonal factors, as noted in the Bank of Namibia (BoN) December quarterly report.
NSA’s tourism monthly report also notes the bed and room occupancy of 2013 was of 48% and 38%, respectively. “Both the room and bed occupancy rates peaked in October 2013 at 64% and 56%, respectively. The low point for the hospitality industry was January with bed and room occupancy rates of 27 and 22%, respectively”.
To avoid past shortcomings towards the growth of the tourism sector, Muyunda highlights their intent to improve customer service in the country through the available skills and training in tourism-related activities. They will also look into increasing the budget allocation into the park development.
To this end, the budget allocated to the tourism sector during the recently tabled MTEF 2014/15 amounts to N$2.3b. Part of that amount should cover marketing costs and improve parks of infrastructure and tourist facilities.
“We are happy with the allocation we received, even though funds can never be sufficient due to competing priorities. However, we will work with what we have and deliver our mandate without compromise,” Muyunda says.

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