Namibia will launch an African Tourism Innovation Hub by the end of this year, to provide mentorship to enterprising youth from across the continent and transition their ideas into viable start-up companies.
The announcement was one of the key takeaways from the 4th Africa Youth in Tourism Innovation Summit held in Windhoek recently. The establishment of the hub will be spearheaded by the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT), with its operations facilitated through private-sector expertise from Africa Tourism Partners and a partnership between the Namibia University of Science and Technology and the Durban University of Technology in South Africa.
Kwakye Donkor, CEO of Africa Tourism Partners, a Pan-African tourism development and strategic destination marketing advisory firm with a strong focus on youth programmes, said the hub would initially support young entrepreneurs participating in this year’s Youth in Tourism Innovation Challenge. The Challenge sees youth from around the continent being offered opportunities to find funding, partnership and mentorship opportunities.
“We are planning to start with the top six and the approximately 30 other youth who entered the challenge. The goal of the hub is to mentor these youth to polish their ideas and bring them to minimum viable product, get the projects to incubation level and transition to start-ups. The start-ups will then be supported through an accelerator programme and funding assistance,” said Donkor, who said the hub would be set up before the end of 2022, after the announcement of the winners of the challenge in November.
Teofilus Nghitila, Executive Director of MEFT, said public- and private-sector stakeholders needed to create a conducive environment for passionate youth to start tourism businesses.
“We must facilitate financial support towards youth-led small business enterprises and support them to drive the tourism sector forward, particularly in the area of digital technology, which is changing the way in which the tourist interacts with and experiences the destinations,” said Nghitila, encouraging the youth to capitalise on the opportunities being offered to them.
“I would like to encourage the African youth to build networks and initiate productive business relations, partnerships and make economic linkages that will lead to the formation of viable enterprises in the travel and tourism value chain across Africa.”
