WINDHOEK, MAR. 3 – As the world is fast moving to open up tourism flow for the vaccinated traveler, the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) has called on government to follow-suite in a bid to galvanize an industry reeling from a Covid-19-inflicted 80 per cent dent in revenues over a two year period.
In January, the commercial tourism sector sent a letter of appeal to authorities to consider opening up Namibia to all vaccinated travelers without the added constraint of a PCR test under the belief that “providing benefits to vaccinated people would not only boost the vaccination campaign of our line Ministry (MoHSS), but also entice the international travel community to choose Namibia as desirable and accessible tourism destination. Other travel destinations have already done so, applying this as a competitive advantage and are reaping the benefits.”
HAN’s CEO, Gitta Paetzold told Namibia Daily News that a plethora of instabilities made the possibility of the tourism sector’s recovery an uphill battle.
Hospitality Association of Namibia’s CEO Gitta Paetzold has rallied branches of government to come together and seek mutually-benefitting solutions
“Tourism is hard at work to recover, but all indications are that we are facing an uphill battle due to the constant changes to travel regulations, restrictions, spikes, etc,. Hence our appeal to government to do away with obstacles and restrictions: introduce easy access regulations for the vaccinated people, and work towards the harmonization of travel rules for the SADC region to encourage trans-frontier travel,” she said.
She rallied various organs of government to act in concert and work toward mutually-benefitting tailor-made solutions.
“Now is the time to stand together as one – Health, Home Affairs, International Relations, Transport and Tourism – to ensure that Namibia stands out as open, friendly, welcoming and an easily accessible travel destination. The competition is fierce. All nations want to regain the huge losses to tourism businesses, and it is up to us as a nation to ensure that Namibia ranks top.
“Tourism cannot do it alone, as we have immigration as our gate keepers, health as our safety regulators at present, and only coordinated efforts by all, the private sector, the Namibia Tourism Board, NIPDB and MIRCO, will help send out strong and effective marketing messages that ‘the Time for Namibia is now! Namibia is waiting for the return of the global traveler.'”
Paetzold pointed out that although the domestic hospitality market always had a presence, a sharp decline had been seen because “the Namibian market is simply too small and financially not strong enough to carry the tourism sector.”
“Hence the need for us to open up to the world, quickly! Only then can tourism retake its stance as an important contributor to the GDP and the Namibian economy, both in terms of financial input and job creation. Covid slashed almost 80% of our industry – we are slowly regaining traction, – but still we have thousands of people out of work, and tourism companies careful to re-appoint, due to continued restrictions.” – musa@namibiadailynews.info
