An occupancy rate of 45% at accommodation establishments in Namibia in November 2022 put the country at a recovery rate of approximately 80% compared with pre-pandemic levels.

The latest statistics from the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) were gathered from 66 hospitality establishments offering a total of more than 57 000 beds.

“Depending on the results of the final month, December, performance thus far indicates that Namibia will end the year 2022 at over 70% of pre-pandemic levels for the entire year,” said HAN CEO, Gitta Paetzold.

The Central European market accounted for over 50% of occupancies in November, followed by the domestic market (25%), South Africa (5.5%), the UK (4%) and the US (3.4%).

“What is encouraging is the fact that, apart from a healthy recovery of the traditional source markets, occupancy by guests from the UK and the US is showing healthy signs of growth,” she said.

Paetzold said the country hoped to continue diversifying its tourism source markets through continued outreach and marketing activities by the private sector, and concerted efforts by government to fund and implement tourism and visa improvement projects.

“A wish for 2023 would be for a concerted national effort to promote Namibia as an accessible, safe and inspiring travel destination, with the Ministry of Home Affairs reiterating its positive visa regime, and the Ministry of Finance allocating adequate resources to the tourism ministry and authorities to be able to execute the ambitious tourism recovery strategic plan for an aggressive marketing campaign.”

Paetzold also highlighted the importance of growing air access into Namibia.

“An important step towards this has been made with the country's first National Aviation Forum in November, the results of which and follow-up efforts are promising to see more international airlines entering the Namibia airspace in 2023.”

Attended by prominent regional and international airline CEOs, business figures and government officials, the Namibia Aviation and Connectivity Forum started putting into motion the trajectory that the country’s aviation industry will take over the next five years.