Qatar Airways left Namibia, tourism sector players in disarray
Qatar Airways has left Namibia for South Africa, dealing a fatal blow to the tourism industry and players who have been dealing with the airline in their business' course.
Flying Windhoek, Namibia to Doha, Qatar YouTube video, now history:
This has been confirmed by Nrupesh Soni of the Namibia Travel and Tourism Forum.
The chairperson of the Emerging Tourism Enterprise Association, Joseph Kafunda also confirmed the news saying this was a devastating development for Namibia as Qatar was a lucrative airline for the domestic tourism sector.
Kafunda is also treasurer at the Federation of Namibian Tourism Associations and also runs the Car Rental Association of Namibia (Windhoek).
"For me i had clients for this year booked with Qatar so i have to look for other means of getting them to Namibia. There is an opportunity in Namibia but if us, we in the tourism industry and i repeat it, "if us in the tourism industry" do not give them the opportunity they pack their bags, It's a loss, a huge loss, a massive loss to all of us," he said.
Soni, who has been up in arms with the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) which he has lately accused of not being all-inclusive, blamed the domestic tourism players at decision making level for mishandling the airline.
Taking to social media, Soni said, "Each and every association member needs to know, the reason their business will suffer in 2021, because some decision makers in the Associations decided they could call the shots without industry feedback. This is why we cannot have a handful of people take decisions on behalf of the tourism industry."
Soni added that in September 2020, after the Namibian Tourism Revival Initiative opened up borders, Qatar Airways had announced that they will suspend flights until March 31st 2020.
He said around October 20th 2020, FENATA ( Federation of Namibian Tourism Associations ) met with both Qatar and Ethiopian airlines.
"And all the airlines asked was for some feedback from the industry, to get an idea of how much Qatar was needed for the tourism revival. And even though FENATA sent the email to all Associations (Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) , TASA - Tour And Safari Association of Namibia, CARAN, NAPHA, etc.) not 1 Association forwarded it to their members. Qatar even mentioned that flights could start in December 2020 if there was a feedback they could send to their head office.
"In February I heard Qatar was closing down their operations and suspending flights until October 2021, and moving their operations to South Africa in the meantime. I know for a fact ( If you want your data to be safe, use pigeons ) that on 15th Feb 2021 FENATA asked the Associations for update on Qatar Airways and the responses from some Association chairpersons were shocking to say the least."
"How can someone actually say that 'we don't need too many airlines' just because they are worried that Lufthansa might lose some passengers to Qatar? Are they not responding to FENATA chairpersons initiatives because she's not from their own little click? HAN clearly avoided the questions on their relationship with FENATA" he said.
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