Namibia to stimulate domestic travel: minister

WINDHOEK, Sept. 28  — Namibia’s Minister of Tourism Pohamba Shifeta on Monday reiterated that companies in the sector should design attractive domestic pricing regimes to stimulate domestic travel, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shifeta highlighted this as Namibia joined the rest of the world to celebrate World Tourism Day on Sept. 27.
According to Shifeta, Namibia has put in place workable COVID-19 standard operating procedures for all tourism businesses and will continue to work on adaptable and flexible COVID-19 health protocols for the tourism sector in collaboration with Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services to support its full recovery.
“Although the sector has received few arrivals and declining activities in the last two years, as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19, a positive trend in international tourists’ arrivals is being observed since mid this year,” he added.
Shifeta said the ministry is working in collaboration with the private sector and all developmental partners to see the full recovery of the tourism sector through aggressive marketing steps, attracting new markets and introducing relevant policy interventions.
“Recently, Namibia launched a domestic tourism campaign aimed at promoting tourism to the local travelers. This intervention strategy promotes Namibia’s tourism attractions to its residents and provides an opportunity for domestic travelers to capitalize on the generous travel incentives provided by the tourism sector,” he added.
Shifeta went on to encourage private companies to join these efforts to grow the domestic travel market and build a resilient tourism sector in the near future.  – Xinhua