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Shifeta encourages smart partnerships and practical business skills to revive tourism

Shifeta encourages smart partnerships and practical business skills to revive tourism

The Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta reiterated that companies in the sector should design attractive domestic pricing regimes to stimulate domestic travel, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shifeta highlighted this as Namibia joined the rest of the world to celebrate World Tourism Day on Monday, 27 September, under the theme “Tourism for Inclusive Growth”.

“The Ministry would like to encourage smart partnerships in the sector in various forms; joint ventures, mergers. We in the same vein encourage the sector to prioritize and focus on tourism entrepreneurship development of the youth through smart partnership and mentorship programmes,” he said, adding that this can be done by well-experienced tourism companies/experts.

According to Shifeta, Namibia has in place workable Covid-19 standard operating procedures for all tourism businesses and will continue to work on adaptable and flexible Covid-19 health protocols for the tourism sector in collaboration with Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services to support its full recovery.

“Although the sector has received few arrivals and declining activities in the last two years, as a result of the outbreak of COVID19, a positive trend in international tourists’ arrivals is being observed since mid this year,” he added.

Shifeta said the ministry is working in collaboration with the private sector and all developmental partners to see the full recovery of the tourism sector through aggressive marketing steps, attracting new markets and introduce relevant policy interventions.

“Recently, Namibia launched a domestic tourism campaign aimed at promoting tourism to the local travellers. This intervention strategy promotes Namibia’s tourism attractions to its residents and provides an opportunity for domestic travellers to capitalise on the generous travel incentives provided by the tourism sector,” he added.

Shifeta went on to encourage private companies to join these efforts to grow the domestic travel market and build a resilient tourism sector soon.


 

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