Namibia’s tourism sector has continued to grow, recording an overall national room occupancy of 54.48% capacity in 2024, nearly 3% higher than in 2023. This is also 1% higher than in 2019, the year before the global pandemic brought the tourism sector to a near collapse.
This was contained in the annual tourism occupancy report for 2024 that was released by Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) chief executive Gitta Paetzold yesterday.
Tourism statistics, such as the occupancy reports collated by HAN on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis, reflect the impact and importance of this sector.
Entering 2025, HAN is committed to demonstrate why tourism matters in terms of the socio-economic impact it has on Namibia, its people and the environment.
She said central Europe, Namibia’s most established and biggest tourism source market, showed continued growth over the past two years, as did the markets in the United States and the United Kingdom, with the African and Asian markets yet to recover
HAN added that as the foreign tourism market grew, the component of Namibian guests at establishments across the country seems to have declined since 2019, from 26% then to below 20% this year.
While financial pressure could be one of the causes of this decline, HAN believes the noticeable increase in offerings of AirBnB and other informal tourism offerings developing across the country may also serve the Namibian market well, and it would thus be advisable for tourism authorities to assess and record the growth in tourism infrastructure development across the country.
“We believe the strong performance of the central European market is directly linked to the easy access into Namibia through the direct airline connectivity between Windhoek and the international hub in Frankfurt/Germany,” said Paetzold.
She continued: “While we look forward to seeing Windhoek connected directly to Munich, as the hub for southern Germany/Austria and other southern European markets as from April, it is imperative to add to Namibia’s air access capacity if we want to see the arrival numbers to Namibia grow in future.”
Paetzold expressed hope that continued efforts of the Namibia Airports Company and its Air Connect Namibia initiative will bear fruits soon and lead to the arrival of more international airlines, connecting Namibia to global travel markets.
In addition, she said HAN was optimistic about the potential of tourism in 2025.
“Namibia is a stable, peace-loving nation with convenient infrastructure and unique attractions and we sincerely hope that very soon, Namibia will pronounce itself clearly and prominently about its new visa policy envisaged to be introduced on 1 April to re-assure our established and new potential travel markets that Namibia remains open and easily accessible for travellers from across the globe,” she said.
– email: matthew@namibian.com.na
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