Despite a minuscule marketing budget and an underdeveloped tourism economy, hospitality stakeholders have rallied to get Namibia’s hotel occupancy rates up to an impressive 80% of pre-pandemic levels, according to stats from the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN).

Data from 74 of the association’s members show that occupancy rates for October this year were 55.1%, compared with the 69.8% experienced in October 2019.

“Once again, European markets are proving to be Namibia's key performers, representing about 65% of all guests, from Scandinavia in the north, to Spain in the south,” HAN CEO, Gitta Paetzold, told Tourism Update. 

Of the total 128 968 bed nights recorded for the month, 40.5% were from German, Swiss and Austrian visitors, 7.5% from France and 5.8% from the Benelux region. The domestic market accounted for 21.5% of bed nights.  

Paetzold said the return of traditional source markets had set the country on track for full recovery levels by the end of 2023.

“But we are very aware of the challenges in our source markets, such as the general economic situation and the energy crisis, which is likely to cut into the level of spending on leisure for the next two years at least,” she cautioned.

Attracting other markets

Paetzold added that the global uncertainty made it all the more important for Namibia’s tourism sector to attract other markets, but there were challenges.

“Despite the very low – if not non-existent – national marketing budget, Namibia is trying to tap into other markets to attract visitors. Lack of connectivity to those markets, in Africa, North and South America and Asia, makes it very difficult to access them.”

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism’s total allocated budget for the 2022/23 financial year is N$478.9 million (€27m), 66% of which will be channelled into environmental protection programmes.