The sudden cessation of international tourism as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world’s largest employer to a standstill, with widespread hardship following in its wake. Can the sector recover?
It is hard to overestimate the impact of Covid-19 on tourism. It is harder still to overstate the impact on those countries, regions and resorts that are heavily dependent on foreign visitors. From the beaches of Bali and Fiji to the Safari parks of Kenya and South Africa and the dunes in Namibia, the impact has been devastating.
Namibia has been on lockdown for almost 6 full months which meant that no tourists were coming into the country at all. Only recently did the Namibian government decide to kickstart a tourism initiative. Tourists would have to provide negative COVID-19 test results not older than 72 hours old before they would be allowed into the country and then they would have to spend 7 days at their first destination to curb the spread of the virus.
As hopeful as the country was to revive the tourism sector, this initiative has so far proven unsuccessful. The country has nor recorded a single tourist arrival at the Hosea Kutako International Airport since.
The current regulations are being reevaluated for arriving tourists and hopefully, the country will get their batch of international tourists as soon as possible.