Tourism slump ‘overestimated’

THE expected effect of the global financial crisis on Namibian tourism this year is not as serious as estimated by the Bank of Namibia (BoN) recently, according to Namibia Tourism Board CEO Digu //Naobeb.

//Naobeb was speaking at a conference about the new NTB Bill that will replace the NTB Act 21 of 2000 by next year. The workshop, held at Swakopmund last Friday, was attended by representatives of the tourism industry, the Police, Justice Ministry and local and regional government officials.
//Naobeb said the BoN’s estimated drop of 30 per cent in tourist arrivals for this year was based on their own projections considering the global economic crisis and its impacts.
According to him, interim figures received from the Namibian Airports Company, which took in account the number of passengers coming to Namibia via the main airlines, suggested a drop of about 10 per cent compared to last year.
‘This doesn’t look as bad as published recently in the media, and we are quite confident that arrivals for this year may, in relative terms, be about 5 per cent lower than 2007, but still positive. Our ‘guesstimate’ therefore is about 880 000 arrivals this year,’ he said.
He said the figures for 2008 were not available yet.
‘Equally, the lack of other statistical information becomes a challenge to give accurate figures, which opens us up to base our arguments on our own projections, which may at the end of the day not be realistic,’ //Naobeb said.
He said this called for all parties, including the BoN, the Central Bureau of Statistics, the NTB, tourism private sector, Directorate of Tourism and other research houses to meet quarterly to analyse the situation and share notes.
//Naobeb said despite the recession, interest in Namibia as a tourism destination compared with the rest of SADC is still high.
‘The recession will affect us, but not as negatively as being predicted,’ he said.
He said plans are in full swing to evaluate and boost domestic tourism, and that a special task force under the leadership of the NTB is talking with local operators to discuss the strategy.
‘We can’t just rely on foreign tourism during these times. We need to bring a balance by fostering local tourism and its input into the local economy,’ he said.
‘A lot is going to be done to enhance local services and infrastructure that will be an asset to domestic tourism.’
//Naobeb said people still want to travel, regardless of economic circumstances, and therefore Namibia should still be marketed aggressively as a prime tourism destination in Africa.
‘The tourism industry is resilient to external environmental and economic conditions, as proven during catastrophic events such as 9/11, tsunami and SARS, as it rebounded in a short time after such events,’ said //Naobeb.
adam@namibian.com.na