2006-07-11Staff Report 2 "By Frederick Philander KEETMANSHOOP The tourism business is booming for at least one entrepreneur in the south near Keetmans-hoop, thanks to a growing number of overseas visitors to Namibia. ""We primarily focus our business from the European tourism market and it is working like a bomb for a small business such as ours. More and more tourists daily visit the farm,"" said the manager of the family business known as Quivertree Forest, Conraad Nolte. He and his parents are managing the tourist venture, which is situated some fifteen kilometers outside Keetmanshoop, since 1989. ""My father bought the farm with the Kokerboom Forest to help protect the environment. Before we bought the farm people were willfully destroying the forest by chopping down the trees for firewood. We started developing the farm with its natural offerings such as the quiver trees, a cluster of about three hundred,"" the young manager said proudly. By his own admission the family business attracts more foreigners than Namibians per year and the number is growing thanks to extensive advertising overseas. ""We would like to encourage the Namibian public to come and visit the south, usually considered to be a dull and unattractive area after the Finger of God tumbled down a few years ago. We try to keep the place intact in its natural form,"" Nolte said. Since taking over the farm, the Nolte family has developed it into a comfortable and popular tourist undertaking. ""Presently, we can accommodate more stay-over visitors because we have erected twenty-five well equipped bungalows for visitors, who frequently come back to admire the natural beauty the south can offer in the form of walking tours through the Quivertree Forest and the beautiful rock formations of what we call the Giant's Playground,"" Conraad asserted, also referring to the fact that the business also helps to rehabilitate stray wild animals. The Quivertree Forest boasts four cheetahs and a warthog, freely roaming on large acres of land." 2006-07-11Staff Report 2
