{"id":10704,"date":"2022-01-27T12:40:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T12:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms"},"modified":"2022-01-27T15:55:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T15:55:19","slug":"tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms","title":{"rendered":"Tourism to grow as Covid transforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>NAMIBIA’S tourism sector stands to benefit from the continued weakening of Covid-19 to a less severe form, as this will give tourists and locals more freedom to travel.<\/b><\/p>\n

According to a report by Simonis Storm Securities, virologists predict that future Covid-19 variants will be less severe and gravitate to being a seasonal disease, which people will simply have to live with.<\/p>\n

According to some researchers, Omicron could hasten the Covid-19 virus’ transition from pandemic to endemic, with many believing the Covid-19 virus will never disappear altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne implication of this, however, is that regular vaccinations and antiviral pill treatments will become part of life in order to make future variants less severe,\u201d Simonis said.<\/p>\n

Namibia recorded 18 787 new Covid cases in December 2021, compared to 281 new cases recorded in November 2021 \u2013 an increase of 6 586% m\/m, while the 9 561 new cases recorded in December 2020 represent a rise of 96% y\/y.<\/p>\n

A total of 60 Covid-19-related deaths were recorded in December 2021, compared to 20 in November 2021, a 200% rise m\/m and 54 in December 2020 (up 11% y\/y).<\/p>\n

Namibia has about 355 000 individuals who are fully vaccinated, representing about 14,2% of the population.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we continue at the current rate, only 21% of the population will be fully vaccinated by the end of 2022. Our low vaccination rate will continue to keep conservative or cautious tourists from visiting our country,\u201d said Simonis.<\/p>\n

With growing signs that Omicron is less severe than Delta, Namibia experienced some relief when the country was removed from international travel ban lists in December 2021.<\/p>\n

Tourists visiting Namibia over the festive season enjoyed a fairly normal holiday in the country, without a curfew or a reduction in alcohol sales trading hours.<\/p>\n

From 103 nationwide establishments, a national occupancy rate of 32,5% was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to 17,0% in the third, and 19,5% in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the Hospitality Association of Namibia.<\/p>\n

December 2021 recorded a national occupancy rate of 27,8% compared to 35,1% in November 2021 and 28,6% in December 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cA meaningful recovery in the tourism sector has yet to materialise as the occupancy rates in the fourth quarter of 2021 are about a third of occupancy rates seen in 2019’s fourth quarter,\u201d said Simonis.<\/p>\n

During December 2021, 66,3% of visitors at local establishments were Namibians, indicating that locals continue to take advantage of specials and discounted packages on offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost foreign tourists who visited local establishments during December 2021 travelled from South Africa (11,0%), Benelux (1,9%), France (1,8%), other SADC countries, excluding South Africa and Angola (0,96%) and the UK and Ireland (0,85%).\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding purpose of travel into Namibia, 91,8% came for leisure, 4,7% for business and 3,5% for conferences.<\/p>\n

Hospitality establishments at the coast have seen the fastest recovery in occupancy rates, followed by the central area. A total of 63 555 international passengers arrived at Hosea Kutako International Airport (HKIA) during 2021, compared to 46 342 in 2020 and 215 155 in 2019.<\/p>\n

December 2021 recorded 4 844 international arrivals, compared to 10 393 in the prior month, a drop of 53,4% m\/m and 4 711 a year ago, rising 2,8% y\/y. On average, HKIA received 5 296 international arrivals per month in 2021, compared to 17 930 per month in 2019 on average (70% below pre-pandemic levels).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain positive in seeing double digit growth in the hotels and restaurants sector in 2022 as countries across the globe ease travel and quarantine restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, international travel will be a lot easier for fully vaccinated individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cNamibia is unlikely to enforce a vaccination passport to foreign travellers, given our low vaccination rates among the Namibian population and struggling tourism industry,\u201d said Simonis.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. NAMIBIA’S tourism sector stands to benefit from the continued weakening of Covid-19 to a less severe form, as this will give tourists and locals more freedom to travel. According to a report by Simonis Storm Securities, virologists predict that future Covid-19 variants will be less severe and gravitate to being a seasonal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-10704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nTourism to grow as Covid transforms - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NAMIBIA'S tourism sector stands to benefit from the continued weakening of Covid-19 to a less severe form, as this wi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tourism to grow as Covid transforms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NAMIBIA'S tourism sector stands to benefit from the continued weakening of Covid-19 to a less severe form, as this wi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-27T12:40:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-27T15:55:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/img-61f2c0527ab44.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Tourism to grow as Covid transforms\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-27T12:40:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-27T15:55:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms\"},\"wordCount\":578,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/img-61f2c0527ab44.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/tourism-to-grow-as-covid-transforms\",\"name\":\"Tourism to grow as Covid transforms - 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