Tourism to target locals

PROMOTING tourism to local people is the name of the game at this year’s Namibian Tourism Expo,as the international market buckles under the financial crisis.

Discounts and specials are supposed to lure cash-strapped locals, who often cite expense as the main reason for not using tourism products, to Namibia’s abundance of destinations. Minister of Environment and Tourism Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, speaking at the launch of the Expo, said ‘mobilisation of local and sub-regional tourists is crucial to fill the gap that may result from the reduction in travel by international tourists’.She said Namibians could fill the gap left by international visitors in the low season, therefore ensuring that people in the tourism sector ‘remain employed and are not put on part-time jobs… as is the case now’. To this end, the Namibian Tourism Board (NTB) has launched a Domestic Tourism Awareness Campaign.The first product of this campaign is a Domestic Tourism Brochure listing specials and discounts for Namibians from various tourism establishments.The Minister said another key concern for the country currently should be the upcoming 2010 Soccer World Cup and African Cup being held in South Africa and Angola respectively.She said these two events could bring a significant number of tourists to Namibia. But the Minister expressed concern that Namibia is ‘late in capitalising on these two events’, and urged the Namibian Tourism Board to finalise its plans for the two tournaments. She also said service standards had to be maintained in order for Namibia to remain a top tourism destination. ‘Whether good or bad, the experience remains with each visitor long after they have returned to their home countries’, the Minister said.Finally she also urged Namibia to move more towards cultural tourism, including traditional cuisine, to tap into Namibia’s ‘varied cultures and heritages’. The Tourism Expo is Namibia’s largest exhibition of its kind, and now has over 15 000 visitors compared to 5 500 in 2003, when visitor numbers were first measured. The Expo has been running since 1999.