No time for complacencyAlthough the official figures indicate that tourist arrivals have increased, Namibia will have to up its game to ensure it stays relevant. Namibia must diversify tourism products and markets Although the official figures indicate that tourist arrivals have increased, Namibia will have to up its game to ensure it stays relevant. Tourism statistics released this week revealed that Namibia needs to enhance its global image. This would entail developing and implementing a national promotion and marketing strategy on a domestic, regional and international level to strengthen its position as a destination.The statistics also indicated that the tourism industry needs to aggressively diversify its products, address seasonality and strategically manage growth and development.
It showed that total foreign arrivals in Namibia for 2015 have increased by 3% from the previous year from 1,477 million to 1,519 million and tourist figures increased by 5,2% from 1,32 million to 1,387 million.
These latest statistics were released during the launch of the Tourist Statistical Report 2015 by the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta who said the statistics for last year paint a healthy picture.
“With no doubt tourism remains a vibrant sector with lots of opportunities and challenges as well. There is thus the need for understanding tourism and its market structure as this will allow for informed decision making.”
However the report states that although there is growth it is clear that this growth significantly declined and may affect Namibia’s reputation as one of the leading countries in tourism growth and development.
The report noted that it is therefore important that Namibia improve marketing strategies to promote the country as a quality and value-for money destination.
It was also pointed out that Namibia is still heavily reliant on traditional source markets which include Europe and within that Germany and the United Kingdom, and therefore it should aggressively develop and implement a demand-driven research-based marketing strategy for Namibia.
“It is important for the sector to market itself aggressively and to offer competitive services and prices. It will be necessary to turn the visitors visiting friends and family into holiday and leisure travellers,” according to the report.
Of the total amount of foreign arrivals 91% were tourists while 7% were same-day visitors and the rest were returning visitors and fell into other categories.
For the purpose of travelling to Namibia 45.6% of tourists were visiting friends and relatives, 38.9% came for holiday and 12.8% were business tourists while 2.7% visited for different purposes.
The top ten countries contributing to Namibia’s tourist market were Angola with 447 038 tourists, South Africa with 351 864 tourists and Zambia with 147 754 tourist arrivals.
These three countries contributed 68% of Namibia’s total tourist arrivals.
Also in the top ten was Germany with 90 729 arrivals, Zimbabwe with 70 940, Botswana with 45 049, the United Kingdom with 25 412 tourist arrivals, the USA with 24 430 arrivals while other African countries contributed 20 639 tourists to Namibia and France had 20 189 tourists to Namibia.
The report also analysed four categories namely Africa, Europe, North America and China. This analysis indicated a 5.2% increase in African tourists to Namibia while the European tourists increased by 5.4%. The North American market increased by 12.4% while a 0.7% decrease was observed in the tourist arrivals from China.
The report further indicates that the top overseas holiday tourists to Namibia was Germany the UK and the USA while the top business tourists were Germany, UK and China.
However it was noted that there was also a decline observed in the Angolan tourist arrivals which could be attributed to the financial crisis that was experienced due to the phasing out of the US dollar. This also led to the retrenchment of workers and closing down of some businesses in Oshikango and other northern and north eastern towns where Angolans used to pass.
The report warns that business owners should consider changing their business concepts and customer segments to include the Namibian clients and what can be affordable to the Angolans as the effects might spill over for the next few years.
The majority of tourists entered Namibia using roads, followed by air with 70.8% of tourists preferring to travel by road and 27.1% making use of air while the rest travelled by other means or sea.
Tourists from Africa tended to travel mostly by road while air traffic dominated European, North American and other regions.
It is also shown that the northeastern border posts (25%) the northern border posts (23%) and the Hosea Kutako International Airports (23%) were the main points of entry used by tourists entering Namibia.
The air arrivals increased with 1.3% while arrivals via road have gone down by 1.8% from 2014 to 2015.
ELLANIE SMIT