Sustainable & Natural Growth Drives Namibia's Gondwana

In January 2017, leading Namibian hospitality business Gondwana Collection welcomed a new Managing Director – Gys Joubert. The former-attorney and finance industry expert took the reins from founder and industry veteran, Manni Goldbeck, who had been running Gondwana for more than two decades. Goldbeck remains with the business as Brand and Marketing Director and continues to support Joubert, who served on Gondwana’s Board of Directors since 2016.

Since taking control, Joubert has set about growing the business and securing Gondwana’s industryleading position in Namibia’s hospitality sector. Today, the company boasts 18 properties across Namibia including lodges, hotels, safaris, and adventure offerings.

Just last month, Gondwana’s newest creation was launched – The Desert Grace, a beautiful lodge in the country’s remote Namib Desert.

“The Desert Grace opened on November 1st,” Joubert tells Enterprise Africa. “It was a very hectic time but we were ready. As the first guests walked in the front door, the mop and the bucket left the back door.”

Asked why Gondwana chose this location for its new lodge, especially considering the company already has a strong presence in the region, Joubert explains that the unique sand dunes and the wonders of the Namib Desert remain a major draw for tourists.

“The highlights of Namibian tourism are still around Sossusvlei and the dunes. Most countries in southern Africa have a good safari and wildlife offering, including Namibia, but no one else has the desert and dunes that we have - the dune belt remains a big highlight. We have more than one lodge there already and we decided to construct this new lodge on the same property but keeping it around eight kilometres from the existing lodge. It’s very exclusive and is a high-end product for the upper-end of the market. We are very proud of what we offer there and we are convinced that it will represent very good value for money.”

Part of Gondwana’s ‘Premium Collection’, the Desert Grace has twenty spacious double rooms and four family units, each with its own plunge pool. Construction of the lodge represents the company’s core values – sustainability, strong ethics and a commitment to nature. The main building is partly constructed

from sandbags, filled on site, offering excellent sound and thermal insulation qualities. The lodge also has its own water recycling plant with energy supply largely catered to by solar sources.

“The values on which the company was born are all about nature,” explains Joubert, who describes himself as a passionate Namibian with a special love for his country, its environment and people. “The first slogan of the business was ‘give back to nature what belongs to nature’. It was never a company, from day one until today, which is bottom line obsessed. The ideals of the company are about being a force for good – they were firmly established from day one and those foundations in the Fish River Canyon remain strong today.”

BORN IN THE CANYON

Gondwana was established in 1996 after Manni Goldbeck and founding partners, identified an opportunity to provide for tourists visiting Namibia’s famous Fish River Canyon. The largest canyon in Africa, a Namibian national monument, and one of the most visited attractions in the country, the canyon was previously serviced by lodges and hotels further north.

“Back then, tourists would come and stay in Keetmanshoop as it was the closest town to the Fish River Canyon. They would drive down to see the canyon and then drive back and stay in Keetmanshoop as there were no facilities any closer. Manni saw the opportunity and realised if he could offer lodge accommodation closer to the canyon, he would be able to capture the market. Commercially, that is where the group started,” details Joubert.

“Importantly, the dream and vision on which the company was founded was always about sustainability and the triple bottom line, and while these are now popular concepts, no one was talking about this back in 1996.”

In the past 22 years, Gondwana has grown to employ more than 940 people and its reach now covers almost the entire 826,000km2 of Namibia.

“If you look at the highlights of Namibia, we can offer everything on the map. There are only one or two small gaps that we are open to exploring but, in general, we are wellpositioned,” says Joubert.

Just before talking to Enterprise Africa, Joubert had been travelling around Gondwana sites in Namibia’s south. He explains that the company’s influence on the region over the years has been extremely important.

“We have the Gondwana Canyon Park to the south and I spent some time across our three lodges there. It’s a big piece of desert that has been acquired over many years and rehabilitated in terms of wildlife, opening up fences, rewilding it, and re-stocking it with game. I spent a lot of time riding through the park on my mountain bike and you see the results of many years of hard work, how the wildlife has re-established itself and it’s wonderful to see.”

ALWAYS BUILDING

In order to spread its roots deeper through Namibia, and further afield, Joubert explains more about plans for two new lodges in 2019 – one at Etosha National Park and one across the border in Zimbabwe.

“At the north eastern corner of Etosha, there is an access gate called the King Nehale Gate and it is situated on community land – it is not privately or commercially owned. Through a tender process, we have acquired the rights to construct a lodge there in conjunction with the community,” he says. “The community is organised around a conservancy and we have contracted with the conservancy to construct a lodge just outside the King Nehale Gate. We have just established the site and the project is kicking off. The main construction will start early next year and contractors are on site. It’s a very exciting project but it is daunting as we don’t own the land and it is a huge capital outlay of around N$75 million.”

The 40-room lodge will be surrounded by the communal areas of the Oshikoto, Oshana, Ohangwena and Omusati Regions and will provide guests with unrivalled access to the Etosha National Park – one of Africa’s leading conservation areas.

In Zimbabwe, the company is looking to attract travellers from different backgrounds, and will use Victoria Falls as the main lure.

“We are making very good progress with our registrations and setting up the company structure in Zimbabwe,” says Joubert. “Our design team is far-advanced and is now working on costings. We recently had a team visit Zimbabwe to work on the technicalities and pricings. It will certainly take around six more months before we break ground on that site, but we are making very good progress. We already own the land on the site so it is very exciting but it is also daunting as it is our first venture across the border, so we are putting in a lot of time and effort to understand the risks and opportunities.”

Earlier in 2018, Africa Albida Tourism – a leading tourism industry figure – found that tourism surrounding Victoria Falls was up on the previous year and showing no signs of abating. It is this demand that drove Gondwana to expanding into Zimbabwe.

“Firstly, Victoria Falls remains one of the biggest highlights in Southern Africa. It is one of the major entry and exit points in sub-Saharan Africa and is classed as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World – it is magnificent,” says Joubert.

“Secondly, we have invested a lot into the Eastern Zambezi region of Namibia which connects easily to Victoria Falls – it’s only 120km from the Namibian border to Victoria Falls. We have invested in the corridor towards the Falls.

“Thirdly, the market profile in Victoria Falls is very different to the profile in Namibia. Namibia is very much German speaking but at Victoria Falls, there is much more North America and UK-based tourism. We hope to develop the transfer from Victoria Falls to our properties in the Eastern Zambezi and from there further into Namibia.”

Traditionally, Gondwana has targeted the mid-market with these new properties and other new products like Camping2Go or the Namushasha River Villa, the company will be able to target different parts of the market attracting more topend clients and also those in the lower-end of the sector.

“We target the high-end of the market with some very luxurious properties and we also cater to the lower-end of the market through our adventure offerings, so we are definitely expanding. However, our bread and butter remains the midmarket, with a good value for money offering,” says Joubert.

BRAND NAMIBIA

The future looks bright for Gondwana, and that is because the future looks bright for Namibia. Having averaged GDP growth of 4.29% since independence in 1990, the country’s economy, and the economy of the wider-southern African region, has hit a hurdle in 2018. But the IMF expects activity to pick up again in 2019. Joubert believes tourism can be one of the drivers of improvement.

“In general, the economy is down and with that comes negative sentiment which is not good. However, we have two and half million people in this vast and beautiful country. We passionately believe that tourism can drastically and totally change the direction of our country. It can eradicate all forms of poverty in a sustainable manner. By caring for our environment, assets and people, tourism can change our future. So, we are very optimistic and very passionate about the impact of the industry in Namibia.”

In 2017, travel and tourism contributed a total of 13.8% of Namibia’s GDP and around 98,000 jobs (according to World Travel & Tourism Council). All of these figures are expected to increase and Joubert says that all players must push in the same direction.

“In terms of sustainability and in terms of making sure that tourism is inclusive – the only way it can be sustainable – we are very proud to play our part and bring the benefits of tourism to the communities of Namibia.

“Gondwana will always play its part but we need all role players involved – government and private sector – we all need to ensure we grow with the market.”

To further expand the business, and develop Namibian tourism, Gondwana will look to get involved in other corners of the industry in the future.

“We are looking at vertical integration with the value chain. Historically, we only used to provide accommodation whereas now we have our own car rental company that we are growing. We want to become a one-stop-shop when servicing guests in Namibia. We will also be expanding our market in the upper and lower ends, and we are also looking at acquisition opportunities to sustainably expand our reach,” details Joubert.

And, even with all the expansion underway, Gondwana will never forget about its home market – domestic Namibian tourists.

“Namibian tourism is very important to us and to back that up we have a Gondwana Card where we offer all holders 50% off all our products. For cardholders in the SADC region, they get 40% off to really encourage our neighbours to make sure they see what this country has to offer. Our source market is still European-based, and we are very much focussed on families. In some of our more niche lodges, it is a bit more difficult but generally we focus on family rooms. We see it as a growth opportunity because more and more people are travelling with their children.”

When Gys Joubert took on his role in 2017, he said he looked forward to finding his own individual path in the business and, to date, he is doing just that. He is of course helped greatly by the magnificent attractions that are offered up by his country. But growing a business that is already very strong in its industry is no easy task. Is Joubert enjoying his work?

“We like to think Brand Namibia is very healthy. People love to visit this country and we want to protect that. We always say that Brand Namibia is more important than Brand Gondwana. We are in a wonderful industry, that creates quality employment in rural Namibia, and has major potential to shape the future of our country.

“We do have our challenges and it is easy to feel negative, but all the challenges can be overcome. The positives vastly outweigh the negatives for us and the potential is so enormous,” he concludes.