Stepping up local tourism marketing

The Arid Eden Route, The Omulunga palm Route. The Four Rivers Route are all new routes additions to  added to the plethora of tourist travel routes available to local and international visitors.
The new tourist routes are marketed on the NTB website as part of a wider marketing campaign that hopes to attract local and foreign tourists from American and European markets by developing and marketing of local and regional tourism routes in the country.
The three year rolling strategy for the management of the routes is projected to cost N$9,103, 721 by the final year of implementation with funds from the Millennium Challenge Account- Namibia , Namibia Tourism Board and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
Arid Eden Routes covers the north west of the country and aims to channel visitors from well-known destinations such as Swakopmund and Etosha to the lesser known attractions in the region.
The Omulunga Palm Route, located along the northern border of Namibia, from Ruacana in the West to Nkurenkuru in the East, is a gateway to Angola.The Four Rivers Route covers the Kavango and Zambezi regions in Namibia linking to the Victoria Falls on one of southern Africa’s biggest attractions Packaged group tours and safaris, tailored self drive tours, domestic family holiday short term high growth priority.
The marketing strategy for each route is clearly outlined in the Strategic Plan for Namibian Routes.
The strategy aims to provide the highest value for money by aligning existing initiatives by the NTB and with the North American Marketing Campaign.
A route brochure for each routes has been developed as part of the Open Africa and Grant Thornton project. The route map and listing of routes participants are also be developed and hosted on the NTB website for easy viewing and downloading. The brochures can also be listed on all marketing material and correspondence of route participants.
Open Africa and Grant Thornton will continue to see the project through in managing a sustainable tourism route with local organisations and conservancies in encouraging cooperation among tourism operators, helping to grow businesses and increases the length of stay of  visitors.
Route participants can also contribute to the image library developed for the North American destination marketing programme with either high-resolution images, video clips that can be shared on social media sites such as You Tube and Facebook.
The online sales guide also provides assistance to tour operations in developing new and expanded tour itineraries based on the new products uncovered during the route development process.