Regional tourism conference to bring investment

NAMIBIA is presenting several tourism investment projects at a matchmaking conference which started in Windhoek on Tuesday.

The meeting is connecting investors from Europe and tourism businesses from the 14 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to forge business relationships under a five-year tourism development programme run by the European Union. About 350 people are attending the conference, which ends tomorrow.”This is the third tourism conference organised under the EU-SADC Investment Promotion Programme (ESIPP) financed with 18 million euros by the European Development Fund for a five-year period,” said Erhard Loher, Charge d’Affaires of the European Commission (EC) office in Windhoek.”ESIPP has the mandate to increase investment and create employment through sector partnership meetings in priority sectors.”The EC is the executive arm of the European Union.Environment and Tourism Minister Willem Konjore said the tourism sector was a fast growing industry in Namibia.”It is expected that tourism will contribute N$6,8 billion to the Namibian economy according to recent statistics,” Konjore said.Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila read the speech of President Hifikepunye Pohamba, who was expected to open the conference but could not attend.In it, Pohamba stressed that tourism led to the protection of wildlife and the environment because most tourists visiting Namibia and other southern African countries wanted to see wild game species.”Wildlife is today the cornerstone and the heartbeat of Namibian tourism,” Amathila read from the President’s speech.”Tourism further contributed to poverty alleviation mainly in rural areas.It improves the earning ability of rural women, enhancing traditional Namibian culture by stimulating trade in basketry, pottery and other traditional crafts.”Namibia has 31 registered conservancies in rural areas, with about 40 000 adult Namibians as members.They have so far earned N$15 million from tourism and trophy hunting in the conservancies, as well as selling crafts.The main focus of the conference is one-to-one meetings between companies of the southern African tourism sector and interested European and other international investors to discuss project proposals and to negotiate partnership agreements for tourism projects.Among the Namibian tourism projects looking for investors are the Swakopmund and Katima Mulilo waterfronts, a leisure development along the Goreangab Dam by Morokeni Investments and an 80-bed luxury lodge on a farm close to Windhoek on the road to Gobabis.A Director in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Dr Rukee Tjingaete, is seeking about N$3 million from an investor to develop a lodge on a 6 700-hectare farm in the Kalahari Desert close to the Botswana border.According to the investment catalogue of the enterprise, called Kalahari Wildlife Paradise, the estimated turnover by 2008 would be about N$1,25 million.A small exhibition is being run in tandem with the conference, but the small Namibian stand displays only a few brochures from the Namibia Investment Centre.About 350 people are attending the conference, which ends tomorrow.”This is the third tourism conference organised under the EU-SADC Investment Promotion Programme (ESIPP) financed with 18 million euros by the European Development Fund for a five-year period,” said Erhard Loher, Charge d’Affaires of the European Commission (EC) office in Windhoek.”ESIPP has the mandate to increase investment and create employment through sector partnership meetings in priority sectors.”The EC is the executive arm of the European Union.Environment and Tourism Minister Willem Konjore said the tourism sector was a fast growing industry in Namibia.”It is expected that tourism will contribute N$6,8 billion to the Namibian economy according to recent statistics,” Konjore said.Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila read the speech of President Hifikepunye Pohamba, who was expected to open the conference but could not attend.In it, Pohamba stressed that tourism led to the protection of wildlife and the environment because most tourists visiting Namibia and other southern African countries wanted to see wild game species.”Wildlife is today the cornerstone and the heartbeat of Namibian tourism,” Amathila read from the President’s speech.”Tourism further contributed to poverty alleviation mainly in rural areas.It improves the earning ability of rural women, enhancing traditional Namibian culture by stimulating trade in basketry, pottery and other traditional crafts.”Namibia has 31 registered conservancies in rural areas, with about 40 000 adult Namibians as members.They have so far earned N$15 million from tourism and trophy hunting in the conservancies, as well as selling crafts.The main focus of the conference is one-to-one meetings between companies of the southern African tourism sector and interested European and other international investors to discuss project proposals and to negotiate partnership agreements for tourism projects.Among the Namibian tourism projects looking for investors are the Swakopmund and Katima Mulilo waterfronts, a leisure development along the Goreangab Dam by Morokeni Investments and an 80-bed luxury lodge on a farm close to Windhoek on the road to Gobabis.A Director in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Dr Rukee Tjingaete, is seeking about N$3 million from an investor to develop a lodge on a 6 700-hectare farm in the Kalahari Desert close to the Botswana border.According to the investment catalogue of the enterprise, called Kalahari Wildlife Paradise, the estimated turnover by 2008 would be about N$1,25 million.A small exhibition is being run in tandem with the conference, but the small Namibian stand displays only a few brochures from the Namibia Investment Centre.