WINDHOEK– The Swakopmund business community want the Namibian Annual Music Awards (NAMAS) back in Swakopmund next eyar because of the positive business impact it had on their businesses.
The coastal town of Swakopmund has benefitted positively economically by playing host to the 2014 NAMAs. This was confirmed by NAMAs Executive Chairman, Tim Ekandjo, based on a study right after the event. Many business owners in Swakopmund welcomed the hosting of NAMAs there as they made huge profits this year. Lucas Nghitaunapo, a Manager at the Swakopmund Rest Camp said they accommodated 300 people during the event. He estimated a profit of N$ 116 100 as their cheapest accommodation cost 387 a night for a single person. “We really made enough profit, thanks to the awards. It also helped us market our services through word of mouth as we continued to receive clients referred to us by those who slept here,” says Nghitaunapo.
Restaurant facilities and eateries also scored large according to residents of Swakopmund. He said the awards must goe back to the town next year, as it is good for business. The Managing Partner of West Coast FM, Clinton Lang, said the radio station’s listenership increased during the awards as popular musicians from Windhoek showed up for live interviews. “We want the show to come back again next year, because it shows they care about our town and the upcoming musicians here who need exposure,” Lang said.
Friday Ekesi from Barber Endurance added that he also received more customers the afternoon before the award ceremony, therefore he also wants the show to be hosted in Swakopmund next year. Ekesi also says apart from good business for a barber like him, the event increased tourist attraction for this holiday destination town and helped market Namibian music more. “It provided the music lovers in our town with just more than entertainment, bearing in mind that there is not much entertainment here. Swakopmund has the biggest venue for such events and also enough accommodation. For these reasons and more I think the show should be hosted here again,” Paulina Moses responds.
Music lover, Eugene Gaingos, who attended the show suggests that the organising committee improve the VIP treatment in terms of seating arrangements and refreshments or freebies. The NAMAs was hosted for the first time outside Windhoek and over N$ 1million were spend on various service suppliers and providers by the organizers during the course of the event weekend.
“We wanted to understand whether industries, and rather which industries benefitted the most and we therefore interviewed different players in the hospitality, transport, accommodation, car rentals, retail, clothing stores, convenience stores, restaurants, and SMEs sector to understand whether they have indeed experienced positive growth during the NAMA 2014 weekend, and we were not surprised that all of them has expressed the same positive sentiments. We also asked if they would recommend that NAMAs 2015 be held in Swakopmund again, and they all said they would gladly welcome the NAMAs back based on the positive revenues” says Ekandjo.
For us this was not just about staging an event of this magnitude, but we wanted to ensure that the businesses not only hear about the NAMA’s being held in their town, but that they also experience the event through their sales figures and I can therefore confidently state that we have achieved this economic objective, and that it was indeed an excellent return on investment for the town of Swakopmund. Restaurants were packed with guest, car rentals were fully booked, hotels and B&B’s were fully booked, clothing shops were packed with guest doing last minute shopping for their attires, carwashes were packed, barbershops had long queues, entertainment areas were abuzz with patrons – all thanks to the NAMA’s, enthused Ekandjo.
“The Mayor and his team should therefore be proud for having hosted such an internationally acclaimed event, and importantly for having created opportunities for business people because our understanding of a Municipality is not that they will benefit directly per say, but that they should create opportunities and platforms for businesses in the town to prosper, because when businesses prosper the economy of the town automatically benefits.”. he added.
Swakopmund Municipality contribution towards the NAMA’s was the provision of accommodation to all nominees and some crew members which amounted to N$200 000 in kind owing to the fact that the local authority availed its Bungalows facility during the two day event.
The event is estimated to have raked it more than N$ 3 million with the beneficiaries being the business community in Swakopmund.
We can confidently state that this was an excellent decision made by the Swakopmund Municiplaity investment by the Municipality and they should therefore be proud of it. The paramount question should not be how much you have invested but how much your return on investment was and this case the return on investment exceeds the investment by far.
Sharing the same sentiments with Ekandjo was the Vice Chairperson of the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry Swakopmund Branch, Hafeni Heinrich.
“It was indeed a welcomed event that benefits the town and the economy of Swakopmund greatly, the crest of business during the weekend was abundant and as players in the tourist industry I for one – noticed the brisk business that happened. – and I would not hesitate to mobilize the business community of Swakopmund to come on board if the Organising Committee of the NAMA’s bring it to Swakopmund again, we would welcome it again with great nobleness” said Heinrich.
According to Ekandjo “we always make our expectations very clear with any town that expresses interest in hosting the event that accommodation for all nominees and venue cost would have to be borne by them as their contribution because this are ordinarily not cost that would exist when we host the event in Windhoek”.
We would like to thank the people of Swakopmund and the entire Erongo region for having hosted a successful event that they can be proud of, the organising Committee have already started planning for the 2015 event – and will engage all interested parties moving forward as we look towards hosting the 2015 edition with less 3 months away before call for entries for the 2015 edition concluded Ekandjo.
Issued