Tourism Update recently sat down with Sebulon Chicalu, Director of Tourism and Gaming, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism in Namibia, to find out what the country has planned for its tourism industry.

Chicalu outlined five aspects that indicate that tourism is set to grow significantly in the southern African country in the years ahead.

Tour guides

Tour guiding has been a high priority for Namibia and the ministry has started national consultation with tour guides.

“We have distributed a survey and we have now established the challenges tour guides are facing. We are in the process of building a framework for tour guide accreditation, registration and training,” said Chicalu. The training will expand across the country, including rural areas.

“The rural tour guides are important because they will sustain the building of heritage tourism. There are gaps in the education of tour guides when it comes to the different qualification levels. We want to make it possible for more young people to come into the system so that they can develop to become a national guide.”

Chicalu said they wanted to encourage youth to learn foreign languages because of the make-up of Namibia’s top source markets, which include Germany, Switzerland and France.

Regional tourism forums

Building and establishing regional tourism forums for Namibia’s 14 regions is another high priority.

“We want every region to share information. In this way they can also co-ordinate the development of tourism and involve everyone, including the youth and women. We want to build a sustainable model through regional tourism forums. It pushes the agenda of tourism into the regional planning strategy. There has to be a tourism component in every specific region,” said Chicalu.

This will be done by profiling the assets and attractions in every region to find out what is required in the human and capital departments, including the possible identification of new facilities.

Africa Tourism Innovation Hub

A major initiative that originated out of the Africa Youth in Tourism Innovation Summit and Challenge in Windhoek last year was the development of the Africa Tourism Innovation Hub.

“Through our partnerships with Africa Tourism Partners, BDO, UNWTO and various educational institutions, this initiative is intended to close up some of the gaps in our tourism industry. It’s not an academic training programme, it is more an applied (practical) training programme. We want to expose graduates to existing tourism enterprises and need to train them in all the areas – finance, marketing, HR, legal etc.”

The innovation hub’s educational partners are the Durban University of Technology in South Africa, the Namibia University of Science and Technology, as well external educational unit eCornell of New York-based Cornell University.

Graduates are also provided with mentors to help them hone their business skills and ideas, and to make it easier to receive financing.

“The banks will see they have been trained on how to run a business. It will make it easier for them to succeed because they now know the risks they need to look at. In this way we are trying to lower the failure rate and increase the success rate of start-ups,” Chicalu said.

Tourism Information Management System

The ministry was further planning to create a Tourism Information Management System that would aim to provide tourism information online, in a format similar to a mobile app, Chicula said.

“This is really an information database system that should have generic tourism information, and we want to make this available and easily accessible for everyone, especially young people and investors. In this way we can identify what the trends and feedback from the users are.”

Tourism Satellite Account

Namibia recently held workshops to strengthen the capacity of key officials to develop the country’s National Tourism Satellite Account (TSA).

During the workshops, participants received feedback on tourism data surveys collected in October 2022 after Namibia’s traditional high season.

The TSA provides detailed information on tourism consumption, tourism supply, tourism employment, and tourism investment, which enables policymakers to make informed decisions and allocate resources effectively.

“The purpose of the satellite account is to determine the contribution of tourism to the national economy,” Chicalu noted.

Future plans

Chiculu said the future of Namibia’s tourism industry looked promising, with plans in place to expand the sector even further.

“We want to spread tourism all over the country throughout the year by tapping into new source markets. We haven’t done much in North America and Scandinavian countries, for example, nor have we tapped properly into the rest of Africa. Entrepreneurship of young people can unlock Namibia’s tourism potential. Digitalisation of the sector will also provide more opportunities in the future.”

Chicalu concluded by saying that more collaboration with other African countries should be at the forefront in the future, referencing the Memorandum of Understanding signed with South Africa last month.

The MoU is part of efforts by the two countries to implement the 100 bilateral agreements that are in place.