Shame At Etosha And Sesriem

ALL this money yet again invested and for what? Million and millions are being wasted to try and create something for which there is no need.

Did Mr Clever in the executive suite do a needs analysis before ordering to copy the Wilderness style, is the question one asks. The Wilderness projects are great and good where they are based, but at Etosha one has a different need and most of all, a much cheaper need.Namibia is a damn expensive holiday destination as it is.The outside world is more and more hesitant to support such outrageously costly countries, while the whole wide world is open to their travellers for cheaper destinations.Etosha was famous for 100 years for its excellent value and most of all, those wonderful self-catering bungalows.All this, now the new clever people now want to deny thousands of people – the very same people that pay these clever people’s salaries! Yes, your outrageous salaries are paid by the tourists, so give the tourists what they want and what they need, not what you personally like.The people who have the money to spend on expensive establishments have the habit of going to smaller and more exclusive establishments of maximum 10 rooms! Learn and understand tourism before you splash out! On our recent visits to Etosha and Sesriem we were shocked by the shambles we found.Etosha looks more like 1 000 years than 100 years old! Everything is just falling to pieces, filthy, unattended and disgracefully dilapidated.Also the benches at the waterhole, they have been falling apart for months now and just remain, as all the rest, unattended.The entrance gate is a great big shame too.Hundreds of people lying around, begging and leaving a total mess of garbage and filth.What an appalling welcome for tourists! At Sesriem we were greeted in a not much different manner.Filthy, expensive and a total lack of service.The shop poorly stocked with old foodstuffs and month-old dirt, not the just the day’s dust.No water, and toilets overflowing.We could not make out what it was floating in the showers, and that, after the cleaning team had been! The wee bit of water in the pool was contaminated even further by staff washing their clothes in it! The fences full of shopping bags and no one caring to clean up.What do we pay the horrendous fee for then! No official receipts – neither at the shameful gas station nor at the office.This makes one wonder whose pockets we are lining by paying the horrendous fees.We pray that it goes to the rightful owners.The staff housing and living areas are filthy and unattended, besides the noise the staff makes until late into the night.The lavatories are emptied into the open bush by way of an old-fashioned sewage truck! The garbage is set alight in an open ditch.Not only the stench is unbearable but the pollution is a problem.All good to have the trash separated in the lovely colourful bins, but why then incinerate it in the open? Do the clever people know and realise this? The question here is clear: how on earth do they want to manage a costly lodge if they cannot even manage a small little campsite? Very concerning indeed.We have instead inspected the fantastic offer of all varieties of alternative accommodation establishments in the surrounds of Sesriem.There is no question that we opt to support those in the future.Whatever happened to the neat uniforms all staff used to wear? We as tourism promoters into Africa pray that Namibians will not further allow this kind of mismanagement of funds and assets.A disgrace to all Namibians it is indeed! It seems that the total lack of interest of the camp management and employees causes this shameful disgrace for Namibia.Give those (once wonderful) places to people who can manage them and most of all, to people who can and are willing to work! There are numerous tourism companies in Namibia who have excellent management strategies and who have helped and assisted countless Namibia citizens with jobs and excellent skills.If you want to save your country from going down the drain of mismanaged assets, please do consider getting the right people at the helm.(This letter was compiled and signed by a group of tour operators from USA, Canada and UK visiting Namibia and southern African on a fact-finding mission).Tour OperatorsThe Wilderness projects are great and good where they are based, but at Etosha one has a different need and most of all, a much cheaper need.Namibia is a damn expensive holiday destination as it is.The outside world is more and more hesitant to support such outrageously costly countries, while the whole wide world is open to their travellers for cheaper destinations.Etosha was famous for 100 years for its excellent value and most of all, those wonderful self-catering bungalows.All this, now the new clever people now want to deny thousands of people – the very same people that pay these clever people’s salaries! Yes, your outrageous salaries are paid by the tourists, so give the tourists what they want and what they need, not what you personally like.The people who have the money to spend on expensive establishments have the habit of going to smaller and more exclusive establishments of maximum 10 rooms! Learn and understand tourism before you splash out! On our recent visits to Etosha and Sesriem we were shocked by the shambles we found.Etosha looks more like 1 000 years than 100 years old! Everything is just falling to pieces, filthy, unattended and disgracefully dilapidated.Also the benches at the waterhole, they have been falling apart for months now and just remain, as all the rest, unattended.The entrance gate is a great big shame too.Hundreds of people lying around, begging and leaving a total mess of garbage and filth.What an appalling welcome for tourists! At Sesriem we were greeted in a not much different manner.Filthy, expensive and a total lack of service.The shop poorly stocked with old foodstuffs and month-old dirt, not the just the day’s dust.No water, and toilets overflowing.We could not make out what it was floating in the showers, and that, after the cleaning team had been! The wee bit of water in the pool was contaminated even further by staff washing their clothes in it! The fences full of shopping bags and no one caring to clean up.What do we pay the horrendous fee for then! No official receipts – neither at the shameful gas station nor at the office.This makes one wonder whose pockets we are lining by paying the horrendous fees.We pray that it goes to the rightful owners.The staff housing and living areas are filthy and unattended, besides the noise the staff makes until late into the night.The lavatories are emptied into the open bush by way of an old-fashioned sewage truck! The garbage is set alight in an open ditch.Not only the stench is unbearable but the pollution is a problem.All good to have the trash separated in the lovely colourful bins, but why then incinerate it in the open? Do the clever people know and realise this? The question here is clear: how on earth do they want to manage a costly lodge if they cannot even manage a small little campsite? Very concerning indeed.We have instead inspected the fantastic offer of all varieties of alternative accommodation establishments in the surrounds of Sesriem.There is no question that we opt to support those in the future.Whatever happened to the neat uniforms all staff used to wear? We as tourism promoters into Africa pray that Namibians will not further allow this kind of mismanagement of funds and assets.A disgrace to all Namibians it is indeed! It seems that the total lack of interest of the camp management and employees causes this shameful disgrace for Namibia.Give those (once wonderful) places to people who can manage them and most of all, to people who can and are willing to work! There are numerous tourism companies in Namibia who have excellent management strategies and who have helped and assisted countless Namibia citizens with jobs and excellent skills.If you want to save your country from going down the drain of mismanaged assets, please do consider getting the right people at the helm.(This letter was compiled and signed by a group of tour operators from USA, Canada and UK visiting Namibia and southern African on a fact-finding mission).Tour Operators