2 minute read
Namibia is ready to host you safely
Every year NTB reports on the positive growth of our tourism sector and the positive impact on Namibia’s GDP, our success in maintaining strong conservation policies and the constructive effect of tourism on job creation in rural areas where Namibians live with wildlife and protect wilderness areas crucial to our tourism product.
I do not want to reflect on what lies behind us, except to say that Namibia’s tourism sector has borne the direct, devastating impact of the pandemic financially and socially. However, we are not the only country in the world to suffer and we are not the only destination that will need to be innovative and dedicated to pull through.
We are ready to host visitors in the post-pandemic world.
With the support and collaboration of international organisations such as the UNWTO we have introduced health protocols as soon as it became evident that this will be the only way to ensure that prospective international visitors would feel safe to travel to Namibia. We soon realised that these international protocols had to be adapted and improved as new global procedures came into play. The entire world is in this together and we depend on one another to keep our populations safe.
Namibia depends on visitors from the countries in the northern hemisphere that were hardest hit. All our collective efforts in Namibia and with our tourism partners in source countries are aimed at making sure that when guests from these countries feel safe to travel again, they will choose Namibia because of our proven safety record in all respects. Warm weather, lack of pollution, a small population and a tourism product that is geared to take visitors to remote, natural places where social distancing is a pleasure, not an obligation.
Namibia is a country that has everything to offer discerning visitors. We have been the trailblazers for eco tourism and had the product ready long before sustainable tourism became the buzz.
We have unspoilt nature and abundant wildlife, which people in rural Namibia share and protect.
Visitors have the freedom and opportunity to travel safely and independently at their own pace and the route of their choice on a well-developed road network. Namibia is a photographer’s and an adventure tourist’s heaven – just page through this publication. The variety of landscape is astounding and the abundance of wildlife and wild places is breathtaking. Our national parks are situated in contrasting geological landscapes, with different plants, trees and wildlife. Even the facilities vary from high-end lodges and hotels to camping sites and affordable options in and around these parks, in towns and in communal areas.
As you will realise when you have read through this publication, T h i s i s N a m i b i a , and also clicked on the link to the web TV series, there is no other place on earth where you can have experiences that will touch your soul.
Namibia is ready for you.
