Singing lodges eye tourism expo

As part of the talent search leading up to the final song competition, five choirs participated in the Kunene regional heat that took place at the well-known Aba Huab campsite this past weekend. The next regional heat will be held in the Caprivi on Saturday, 11 May at Mashi Crafts.
This year’s winning choir will perform for summit delegates at the opening event of the Adventure Travel World Summit in Windhoek on 26 October 2013.
Standard Bank is sponsoring the 2013 Tourism Expo Joint Venture (JV) Lodge Song Competition with an amount of N$100,000. The final round of the competition takes place at the annual Tourism Expo on 30 May 2013.
“Standard Bank is pleased to support the tourism industry. Tourism is a very important industry for Namibia, creating and ensuring jobs for many Namibians. Therefore, we found it necessary to sponsor these tourism events in an effort to create awareness about and boost the local tourism industry,” says Surihe Gaomas, PR and Communications Manager at Standard Bank Namibia.
Earlier this year, Standard Bank committed to sponsoring the Adventure Travel World Summit with a massive N$600,000. The bulk of the sponsorship, N$500,000 will be used for the Namibian Pavilion. The remaining N$100,000 is used for the song competition.
Since 2009 the Tourism Expo has hosted the song competition for choirs from lodges in communal conservancies in the Kunene and Caprivi regions. These conservancies provide important eco-services such as game guards, guides and trackers while lodges provide employment and profit-sharing to the conservancies.
Last year’s winning team, Doro Nawas, traveled to Switzerland with the Minister of Environment and Tourism to bid for the World Travel Adventure Travel Summit in 2013.