Business Reporter
ACCORDING to recent statistics availed by the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN), a national occupancy rate of 51.0% was recorded during July 2022, compared to 32.1% in the prior month and 11.9% in July 2021.
This is the highest occupancy rate recorded since December 2019. Year to date (YTD), the national occupancy rate averages 32.7%, compared to 20.2% for the same period in 2021, showing an improvement in tourist inflows.
In addition to this, National Accounts data show an expansion of 8.8% in the Hotels and restaurants sector of the economy.
Commenting on the recovery of the tourism sector, economic analyst from Simonis Storm, Theo Klein, explained that while the Hotels and restaurants sector only accounts for 2% of GDP, this is only a proxy for the tourism sector and excludes the spillover or indirect benefits to other sectors of the economy.
“Past studies (conducted by GIZ and the Tourism Board) have shown the tourism sector’s share of GDP to be as high as 15%. Being able to absorb unskilled workers in the sector, a continued expansion in tourism activities will be beneficial in replacing lost jobs following the lockdown induced recession,” Klein shared.
He further noted that the proportion of Namibian guests at local hospitality establishments continues to decline as more foreigners visit. The local guest rates decreased from 34.0% in June 2022 to 17.9% in July 2022.
Central Europe remains Namibia’s key tourist market (57% of total guests), with 31.3% of guests in July 2022 travelling from Germany, Switzerland and Austria combined, South Africa (12.2%), Benelux (10.9%), France (7.3%) and the US and Canada combined (4.3%).
Regarding purpose of travel into Namibia, 95.4% came for leisure, 2.7% for business and 1.8% for conferences. Hospitality establishments in the central area recorded the highest occupancy rate (58.1%), followed by the northern area (51.3%), southern area (50.3%) and coastal area (45.9%) in July 2022.
Klein stated that Local tourism might be limited in the near future as local travelers battle with expensive food, fuel and accommodation prices.
“Indeed, the Hotels, cafés and restaurants category has recorded high single digit inflation rates in recent months – averaging 9.0% YTD. Disaggregating this main category, we see that accommodation services has only recorded double digit inflation rates and averages 15.1% YTD. This is evident that local hospitality establishments have little capacity in absorbing a rise in input costs (e.g. electricity tariffs, food, fuel, wages, etc.),” Klein shared.
He added that according to HAN, there are strong and multi-faceted marketing efforts being carried out to promote Namibian tourism in Europe.
“Namibia’s presence in brochures and media productions (both print and electronic) are encouraging. Namibia currently enjoys prominent presence in promotional offers and material of key outlets in Germany, where tours to Namibia are part of various holiday packages offered across the globe. The tourism sector remains a key driver of economic activity in 2022 in our view, supporting our 2.5% GDP growth forecast for the year. It certainly is a sector of the economy that has a very low base to grow from. We remain positive on the developments that we observe in the monthly data and expect to see other sectors benefiting as well (e.g. transport, retail, professional services, etc.),” Klein concluded.
UPWARD TRAJECTORY: File photo for illustrative purposes only. Photo: visitnamibia.com.na
