Free movement of individuals crucial for tourism

Namibia is urged to follow South Africa and European countries by allowing individuals to enter the country freely in order to boost tourism.
According to Simonis Storm (SS), scraping the need for individuals to present vaccination certificates or negative PCR test results will boost the inflow of tourists and complement current marketing initiatives.
Namibia recorded 2 816 new covid cases in June 2022, compared to 7 714 in May 2022 and 34 368 in June 2021
Citing the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN), Simonis noted that a national occupancy rate of 32.1% was recorded during June 2022, compared to 39.4% in the prior month and 16.7% in June 2021.
Year-to date, the national occupancy rate averages 29.6%, compared to 21.5% for the same period in 2021, showing an improvement in tourist inflows.
The proportion of Namibian visitors at local establishments increased slightly from 30.6% of guests in May 2022 to 34.0% in June 2022. From the foreign visitors, most guests in June 2022 came from Germany, Switzerland and Austria (27.1%), South Africa (12.8%), France (5.8%) and the US and Canada (3.7%) during June. Regarding purpose of travel into Namibia, 92.3% came for leisure, 5.0% for business and 2.7% for conferences. Hospitality establishments in the central area recorded the highest occupancy rate (39.3%), followed by the coastal area (33.5%), southern area (31.8%) and northern area (27.6%) in June 2022, SS pointed out.
Conference
Moreover, during first quarter of 2022, Namibia had a total of 27 862 foreign arrivals, with 12.9% visiting Namibia for business or conference purposes, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.
According to HAN CEO Gitta Paetzold: “Namibia is a prime destination for the MICE market, as we do hold capacity for conference and exhibitions, especially in Windhoek and Swakopmund, with average sized conference facilities. In the past, Namibia has already hosted a number of international events of large scale such as UN Cop 11, the upcoming UNWTO Youth in Tourism Summit, and for larger events, has been able to pitch temporary facilities, such as event tents, to add to the infrastructure already in place.
There has been some critique from industry, that the permanent conference facilities Namibia holds is not suitable for huge events, such as auto mobile and other huge industrial exhibitions. Another draw-back is also the continued lack of a Convention Bureau/official Conference coordinating agency or Centre for Namibia, something that has been in many planning documents from the Ministry of Trade, as well as the Ministry of Tourism for years already. However, more recently there has been talks to set up the Bureau by the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) and Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.”