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World Tourism Day celebrated – Consented efforts and adopting workable business models to boost sector required: official

World Tourism Day celebrated – Consented efforts and adopting workable business models to boost sector required: official

The Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism (MEFT) believe the time is now to transform the future of local tourism and build a sustainable and inclusive sector to the benefit of the majority of people.

This was highlighted by the MEFT deputy minister, Heather Sibungo at an event in Omuthiya to celebrate World Tourism Day 2022 on Tuesday.

“This will require consented effort and adopting workable business models best suited for our challenges, as we cannot go back to the old ways of working or doing business! We must indeed “Rethink Tourism”, she added.

According to Sibungo, in recent years the tourism sector has been recognized by the government as an important economic sector and a critical tool for sustainable development as highlighted in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

“Tourism is one of the backbones of Namibia’s success story. Namibia has the necessary framework conditions for the tourism sector to continue growing exponentially and through that contribute to, local economic development, employment creation, community empowerment, and poverty alleviation. These elements are key development priorities for the Namibian government,” she stressed.

According to her, the World Tourism Day 2022 celebrations come at a time when the tourism sector is recovering from the social and economic impact of Covid-19.

“The decline in international tourist arrivals recorded in the previous two years; 2020 and 2021 respectively, is a major shock for developed economies. However, Namibia continues to experience from late 2021 to the second quarter of 2022, a growing trend in tourism arrivals,” she said, adding that this is a positive outlook.

Meanwhile, Sibungo said Namibia’s conservation success stories stand out top of the World!

“The government will continue to make effort to create a conducive and enabling environment for all the stakeholders to participate and to grow the sector from strength to strength. I call on the communities, to partake in tourism and take advantage of the heritage tourism product development in the rural areas to benefit our people,” she concluded.

Namibia will host the annual Tourism Expo from 03 to 05 November 2022, at the SKW Field in Windhoek. The 3 days event will bring about the needed synergy and revival of domestic travel after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.


 

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