Low tourist activity experienced

FNB Namibia and Fenata have released the first tourism/travel index for 2015 which hints towards lower tourist activity within the country as the index dropped 12.8% quarter on quarter.

Daniel Kavishe, Market Research Manager at FNB Namibia Holdings advised that international passenger arrivals, combined with catering and retail activities at the various hotels and restaurants, dropped during the first quarter. He added that seasonally, the data correlated with the overall nature of tourism flow which dipped during the summer season.
Kavishe says that an opinion survey had been carried out in the industry and results proved that past performance of businesses within the industry showed a substantial decline over the quarter with most Managers citing less activity than they anticipated. “30.1% of the respondents cited that they expected a higher influx of customers than was recorded. Revenue during the same period seemed to further decline with 38.9% of the respondents stating that sales had dipped as demand tapered. According to the respondents the ripple effects of the Ebola crisis had a negative impact on overall operations since the third quarter of 2014 but there was hope that the numbers would normalize this year.”