Namibia Tourism and Hospitality Industry Make Significant Strides

By Josef Kefas Sheehama

The tourism industry contributes about 10 percent to the global GDP. In Namibia, the contribution of tourism and hospitality to GDP was N$7, 7 billion or 3, 7% of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and an indirect contribution of N$24, 8 billion, or 12, 0% of nominal GDP. Considering the tourist demographic, Europeans accounted for 64% in September, with Namibians at 18% and South Africans at 5%.

Tourism is an important economic activity in Namibia as a tool for development and generating economic benefits. The recovery of the tourism industry has hence been a prevalent topic since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected the industry significantly through external and internal travel bans and border closures. In an attempt to revive the tourism industry, the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism has to focus on domestic tourism and marketing the country as a safe holiday destination. I am fully aware that Namibian Tourism Board is the official travel and hospitality governing body of Namibia, but the Ministry attendance is critical. Tourism continues to be one of the sectors hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the outlook remains highly uncertain, hence stable. Therefore, domestic tourism can be used as an alternative to drive the economy and improve tourism business performance.

Although domestic tourism may offer quick recovery to the industry, it has also been severely impacted by COVID-19 outbreak containment measures. The crisis is a call for governments at all levels to take strong and coordinated policy action to mitigate the impacts and support the recovery. The government should focus on initiatives to support the hospitality industries when tabling Budget 2023/2024. The structural and physical changes to tourist destinations would be required to address health requirements and visitor expectations. The government to provide more financial relief to help businesses to reduce costs, spur demand and alleviate cash flow issues until travel volume recovered. The survival of businesses throughout the tourism ecosystem is at risk without continued government support and although governments have taken impressive action to cushion the blow to tourism, to minimize job losses and to build recovery in 2024 and beyond.

While flexible policy solutions are needed to enable the tourism economy to recover and growth in the medium to long term, it is important to look beyond this and take steps to learn from the crisis, which has revealed gaps in government and industry preparedness and response capacity. The crisis is an opportunity to rethink tourism for the future. Tourism is at a crossroads and the measures put in place today will shape the tourism of tomorrow. Governments need to consider the longer-term implications of the crisis, while capitalizing on digitalization, supporting the low carbon transition, and promoting the structural transformation needed to build a stronger, more sustainable and resilient tourism economy. The sector also risks being among one of the last to recover, with the ongoing travel restrictions and the global recession.

Quantifying the current and future impacts of the crisis on the tourism sector is challenging, with the crisis exposing shortcomings in tourism statistical information systems, including a lack of robust, comparable and timely data to inform policy and business decisions. For tourism to recover, governments need to develop a phased approach. However, due to continued containment measures, the potential of domestic tourism remains constrained, but stable. This may exert a significant and long-standing impact on consumer behavior, thereby accelerating the transition to digitalization, placing greater emphasis on health and hygiene, and increasing the demand for contactless experiences. This is an opportunity to rethink the tourism system for the future, as the measures implemented today will shape the tourism of tomorrow. Governments need to consider the longer-term implications of the benefit, and the structural transformation required to build a stronger, more sustainable and resilient tourism economy. Namibia need to ensure continuous innovation and transformation in the sector, and provide investments to make structural and physical changes for addressing health requirements and visitors’ expectations in the first phase of recovery, and in the long term. Tourism economy needs to be supplemented with more coordinated efforts, utilizing this crisis as an opportunity to rethink tourism for the future.

With the proper strategy and incentives, domestic tourism can lead the contributed to the economic recovery. Moreover, this can include product innovation and pricing reforms to cater to domestic tourists and keep up with new tourist demands. Furthermore, tourism players acknowledged the potential to revive the tourism industry and business via domestic tourism. Empowering communities involved in domestic tourism and emphasizing sustainability and responsible practices are pertinent to rebuilding the domestic tourism industry. Thus, domestic tourism is deemed to be an alternative strategy to rebuild the tourism industry.

The future outlook, as the world is trying to adapt to the changes brought by the pandemic, the hospitality industry is also making a steady albeit slow return. With domestic tourism as a priority, persuasive marketing and promotions, product development initiatives, and different rebates for domestic travelers, tour operators, and travel agents shall be vigorously operationalized to stimulate demands. Hence, the key elements, such as safety and health, collaboration and partnership efforts, digitalized communication and marketing, flexibility in bookings and cancellations, crisis management, and resilient strategies, encapsulate the new tourism business model.

In conclusion, the revamped industry will likely to increase revenue, generate employment, and alleviate poverty through thriving public–private partnerships, community involvement, and community well-being.