he Namibia Tourism Act and accompanying regulations were quietly gazetted on 14 July 2004, bringing a bedding levy of 2 percent sand new registration rules for tourism estab-lishments. The Gazette is not on sale yet, as last minute changes were made and the printers are busy printing the hefty document, a reliable source told PLUS. The tourism industry has 3 to 6 months to prepare and comply with the new regulations. The already regulated accommodation industry will be granted 3 months in which to re-register, and the effective date for the regulations is 1 November 2004.

Other tourism companies not yet regulated, in-cluding new accommo-dation categories, as well as tour operators have until 1 February to re-gister. The tourism levies will be collected from 1 November 2004 and must be paid to the Namibia Tourism Board every two months.