WINDHOEK, Mar. 3 – Hospitality Association of Namibia’s (HAN) CEO Gitta Paetzold has revealed that January 2022 collated tourism occupancy figures show a decline compared to January 2021. This, she said, can be attributed to the negative impact of the omicron variant of Covid-19, which inspired abrupt regional travel bans in southern Africa during the months of December and January.
Paetzold pointed out that that an overall room occupancy of only 18,5 per cent recorded in January 2022, was almost 2 per cent lower than in January 2021.
Hospitality Association of Namibia’s CEO Gitta Paetzold has rallied branches of government to come together and seek mutually-benefitting solutions
She added: “Many agree (that this) may be partly due to the large-scale cancellations the sector received in late November, when omicron caused most source markets to call a travel ban to southern Africa. The 18,5% of January 2022 is also still in stark contrast to January 2020, the last normal tourism month of that year, pre-covid, that held a 37% occupancy.”
Another harrowing statistic revealed that in comparison of January 2022 against 2021 the occupancy percentage from Namibians also dropped by nearly nine per cent from 61,4 per cent in January 2021, to under 53 per cent in January this year.
“(This is) a clear sign, that 2 years into the economic constraints due to the pandemic, the financial hardship suffered by Namibians is limiting the scope of the domestic market to make use of the tourism products on offer,” she said.
According to Paetzold, Covid slashed almost 80% of the hospitality industry. – musa@namibiadailynews.info
