Namibia tourism expo in May

Namibia’s own tourism trade fair will take place at the Windhoek show grounds from 8 to 10 May. The Namibia Holiday & travel Expo 2003 will fall together with the annual congress of the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN), also taking place in the capital. The trade fair gives local tourism organisations; operators and the hospitality sector a chance to make their products known to the larger public and to exchange ideas and new trends in the tourism business. The first day of the event, 8 May is reserved for professional representatives only, while the public can visit the expo the following two days.

The annual chefs competition organised by the Namibia Chefs Association will take place concurrently. Entry forms for the cooking competition can be obtained at namchef@iway.na before 30 April, which is the closing date for entries.

Henties Bay fish festival

In the very dread of winter the coastal holiday and fishing town of Henties Bay will become a beehive of activities with the second fish festival taking place from 3 to 5 July 2003. Preparations have already begun for the event, which is planned to provide a break from the long and quiet winter season. The resounding success of the first fish festival, which took place last year, the organisers want to make it an annual event.

Apart from fishing competitions and fish braai events, dances are planned in the evenings. Local musicians and artists from South Africa will entertain visitors. Further information can be obtained from info@hentiesbay.com.

Transfrontier Park in South

Namibia and South Africa will soon sign a treaty to establish a transfrontier park by joining Namibia’s Ai Ais Park and the Richtersveld Park in South Africa. This initiative was recently discussed and supported by the presidents of Namibia and South Africa. According to environment and tourism Minister Phillemon Malima, the new park will improve the conservation management of an area with the richest biodiversity in Namibia and provide a new focus for tourism development in southern Namibia. The minister announced last week that his ministry was busy negotiating a transfrontier park with Angola. It will comprise of the northern Skeleton Park in Namibia, the ecologically fragile Kunene mouth and the adjacent Iona national park in southwestern Angola.

N$ 11 million benefits for conservancies

Last year benefits generated by communal conservancies amounted to 11 million N$, which were ploughed back to the rural communities. In his budget speech, environment and tourism Minister Phillemon Malima informed parliament that the 19 communal conservancies existing in Namibia were able to make those profits form tourism, hunting concessions and selling live game. Numbers of live game already recovered sufficiently in several conservancies, according to the minister, with nine hunting concessions already awarded. Several hundred heads of game were moved from overpopulated areas to other conservancies in order to support the restoration of natural resources. Motivating the budgetary allocation of 149,3 million N$ for his ministry, Minister Malima noted that the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) would receive 30 million N$ for the new financial year.