Windhoek
Tourism in Namibia is apparently booming with the Gondwana Collection saying since its inception 20 years ago they experienced their best monthly occupancy during August.
The reasoning is that more overseas tourists are travelling to Namibia to enjoy the luxury of space and guaranteed sunshine.
“The bed occupancy for August reached a surprising 78.56 percent. This is a number we’ve never reached before,” said reservations manager Leez Hövelmann.
“The numbers have increased with nearly 10 percent when comparing it to the August statistics of the past five years and the coming months are looking very promising.”
The Gondwana Collection consists of 14 lodges throughout the country and a hotel in Swakopmund.
Over the past month the properties received more guests than expected and surpassed already optimistic forecasts. Previous records were smashed with Etosha Safari Camp’s 99 percent occupancy, followed by Namib Desert Lodge (88 percent) and the Canyon Lodge and Namushasha River Lodge (each 83 percent).
“We’ve seen a steady increase in tourist numbers since the beginning of this year”, said Gondwana Collection’s financial director, Jaco Visser.
“Through the combination of the demand from tourists and tour operators and the effective coordination of our reservations system, we managed to achieve such an excellent occupancy. We would like to thank the tour operators, who handled their block bookings responsibly.”
Gondwana’s managing director, Mannfred Goldbeck, added: “Currently the stars are smiling down on tourism. Namibia is considered a safe travel destination thanks to its political stability and good infrastructure. Then you add the good marketing strategy the Namibia Tourism Board in Frankfurt has in place, the weak Rand, and of course the new airlines that fly to our country.”