Albertina Nakale
The Hospitality Association of Namibia says the tourism sector is being held captive by vaccination apathy. HAN chief executive officer Gitta Paetzold said although there had initially been extenuating circumstances that worked against Namibia’s national vaccination efforts, the biggest challenge preventing Namibia from gaining the necessary traction to meet the WHO targets, is vaccine hesitancy amongst the population.
“This seems part of the reason why the authorities still see the need to impose what tourism perceives to be an obstacle for travel, namely demanding additional testing also from fully vaccinated people to protect the unvaccinated Namibian people. The health ministry re-emphasised that vaccination remains the best hope of ending the pandemic, restoring the dented livelihoods, and re-building the economy,” she noted.
Namibia has not reached the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) target of vaccinating 40% of the eligible population by end of 2021 and the health ministry said the country is not on track to reach the WHO target of 70% of the eligible population by mid-2022.
In fact, the ministry of health’s executive director Ben Nangombe has said if Namibia’s Covid-19 vaccination uptake continues at the current slow pace, it will take the country at least three years to reach herd immunity.
According to data provided by the ministry of health, by 27 February 2022, Namibia had administered 442 362 first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine (21.1% of the target population of 1.7 million people). Only 25.47% of the target population, or 373 319 people, were fully vaccinated by the same date.
The daily vaccination uptake rate currently stands at around 1 000 persons on average.
HAN’s February report shows while 2022 generally promises to hold a light at the end of the dark Covid-tunnel, – the first month of the year still reveals the negative impact that the pandemic, and in particular the Omicron variant has had on tourism in southern Africa, due to abrupt travel bans to this region in December and
January.
She said the world is fast moving to open up tourism flow for vaccinated travellers.
In January this year, the commercial tourism sector sent a letter of appeal to the Namibian authorities to consider opening up Namibia to all vaccinated travellers without the added constraint of a PCR test.
HAN believes providing benefits to vaccinated people would not only boost the vaccination campaign of the health ministry but also entice the international travel community to choose Namibia as a desirable and accessible tourism destination.
“Other travel destinations have already done so, applying this as a competitive advantage and are reaping the benefits,” she stressed.
The government announcement in mid-February, allowing in addition to returning Namibians who have vaccinated entry without test and those living within a 60km radius from the borders, may have been a small step towards this goal.
However, Paetzold suggested Namibia may wish to urgently reconsider this two-class system, as the country’s major source markets are key to the success of tourism recovery.
January 2022 tourism occupancy figures collated by HAN have revealed a decline compared to January last year, emphasising the need for Namibia to act now and to leave no stone unturned to position itself as an attractive, accessible, and desirable travel
destination.
The HAN occupancy report, reflecting an overall room occupancy of only 18,5%, is almost 2% lower than in January 2021, which many agree may be partly due to the large-scale cancellations the sector received in late November when Omicron caused most source markets to call a travel ban to southern Africa.
Paetzold stated the 18.5% of January 2022 is also still in stark contrast to January 2020, the last normal tourism month of that year, pre-Covid that held a 37% occupancy, which means that as yet, Namibia is less than half where it used to be under normal circumstances.
Furthermore, a comparison of January 2022 against 2021 also reveals, that the occupancy percentage from Namibians also dropped from 61.4% in January 2021, to under 53% in January this year, a clear sign that two years into the economic constraints due to the pandemic, the financial hardship suffered by Namibians is limiting the scope of the domestic market to make use of the tourism products on offer.
Due to the financial limitations and the small-scale potential of the domestic market, Paetzold says it is imperative that Namibia ensures that all systems are put in place to allow for a free and easy return of regional, continental and international travel to Namibia.
She mentioned Namibia should recognise the responsibility taken by those vaccinated, by providing them with benefits, such as access to travel without unnecessary obstacles.
Caption: (HAN) Hamstrung… The Hospitality Association of Namibia says the tourism industry has been affected by Namibians’ vaccine hesitancy.
Photo: Emmency Nuukala