SWAKOPMUND – The festive season is going to start early this year, with predictions of the coastal towns going to burst at the seams with hordes of blissfull holidaymakers.
Already visiting inlanders escaping the heat are seen out and about at seaside resorts enjoying the near to perfect weather.
With the closure of schools this week the mass exodus is not far off as roads start to fill up with families heading out on their annual vacation.
Road safety campaigns are in full swing to spread the message of “arrive alive,” and traffic law enforcement and police are on full alert.
But nothing can prepare the coastal towns for the bumper season that is being anticipated with holiday accommodation booked out as early back as June already. With no room left even for a mouse in Swakopmund, and Walvis Bay running out of space – hotels, furnished homes, apartments and self-catering units, to mention but some, have been snapped up at high-season rates.
“People will pay anything to come to the coast at this time of the year,” said one prominent estate agent.
“We have clients from South Africa who are willing to pay N$10 000 a day for something ‘nice’ for their family for up to three weeks,” the estate agent further said .
Christine Schwieger the owner of Nels Estates, one of the big holiday accommodation agents in Swakopmund, said if her bookings were anything to go by the coastal towns are in for a real bumper season and business is going to boom.
“Reservations are much better than previous years with bookings confirmed from end November to mid-January, shifted in three groups. The major portion runs through the peak season from 20 December to 2 January, “ she explained, adding that they have 50 percent deposits up front with all their bookings.
With the overwhelming demand for accommodation the rates are high, but controlled, and prices can peak up to as much as N$4 500 a day but that would be for an extremely luxury mansion overlooking the sea.
The lower end starts at around N$900 per day which can sleep four, and can go up to N$2 400 for a top of the range holiday ‘pad’.
“We opened our bookings in April and have been fully booked since June, with a 50 percent deposit paid up front, and there is not even a single room available in Swakopmund at the moment,” she said.
Lyndon Izaaks the operations manager of Bay Self-Catering accommodation which dominates the self-catering market in Walvis Bay is currently managing nearly 300 self-catering apartments, and has been inundated with calls and bookings.
He said they are well over 80 percent full and experienced the festive rush starting early in October already with bookings made throughout the year. They have their regulars and holidaymakers confirming occupation for up to two weeks, and only a limited number of two-bed units are left.
Offering everything from fully furnished townhouses, flats and loose standing homes, all the holidaymakers need to come with are their clothes as these holiday appartments provide home away from home comforts.
Izaaks explained the festive period rates are 20 percent higher than during the year, with their top luxury units at the Presidents View Complex on the lagoon going for N$3 000 per night. They were however already snapped up by high-ranking officials from the Brazilian navy, as well as a minister from Botswana.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes shops and businesses are frantically finalising their last consignments of goods ordered months ago to make it in time for the big ‘rush’.
“We need to make sure all our orders get out early before the factories close so that our merchandise, which is imported from either South Africa or further abroad, reaches us for the Xmas trade,” said one shop owner.
“We are expecting a good year and everything is in place for the hoards of holidaymakers that will descend upon the coastal towns during the festive season,” said the shop owner.
By Donna Collins