Swakopmund Municipal rest camp to be upgraded over 5-year period
By Adolf Kaure.
At its latest meeting, the Swakopmund Municipal Council has approved the upgrading of the Municipal Rest Camp to address the challenges experienced at the facility and provide actions that will improve its competitiveness.
According to the chairperson of the Swakopmund Municipal Council’s Management Committee, Blasius Goraseb, the growth of the tourism sector is what led to the decision to upgrade the rest camp.
“The Swakopmund Municipal Rest Camp was established to give fishermen a cheaper and more accessible type of accommodation. It offers the bare minimum in terms of furnishings and amenities.” The rest camp is more than 50 years old.
“In the interim, the travel and tourism sector has experienced significant growth, and as of now, there are various new high-end international hotel brands that place a strong emphasis on extravagance and luxury,” he said.
The increasing popularity of self-catering apartments, particularly for families, has reduced demand for budget accommodation at the municipality’s facility, prompting the Counciil to take action and approve extensive upgrades to the existing facility.
“The archaic and outdated status of the Swakopmund Municipal Rest Camp like beds, small rooms and furniture has posed a great threat to their popularity,” said Goraseb.
Other challenges include the seasonality of the tourism season, lack of activities to attract tourists to Swakopmund and the tourists’ short duration of stay. “All these issues affected the occupancy rate of the bungalows in an undesirable way and thus prompted the need to upgrade the rest camp to improve its competitiveness,” he said.
Currently the rest camp offers 190 units in seven different bungalow configurations and a conference facility for 50 people.
On average, the occupancy rate over the past three years has hovered between 35% and 43%.
For the envisaged upgrade, it is proposed to carry out the work over a 5-year period with the intention to finance a part of the cost by liquidating other municipal property such as the Khunas Flats. The most basic units will be revamped first, followed progressively by a cluster of higher-end units every year until the entire rest camp has been overhauled.
The Swakopmund Municipal rest camp was established more than fifty years ago and is now in need of a serious revamp to keep it competitive in the tourism segment that it caters for. (Photograph by Adolf Kaure)
