Background
The room and bed occupancy rates serves as a proxy to Namibia’s tourism sector. This indicates the demand for the hospitality sector in the country. The Covid-19 restrictions and lockdown measures imposed during the year 2020 to contain the spread of Covid-19 has negatively affected the demand for accomondation services for Namibia. Figure 1 below shows the rooms and beds occupancy rates for Namibia pre-Covid-19 and during Covid-19.
Additionally, for the first three quarters of 2021 the statistics indicates that the demand for accomomodation services is slowly returning and starting to pick up. This came as a result of the relaxation of the majority of the Covid-19 restrictions. See figure 2 below
Figure 1: Rooms and beds occupancy rates, Namibia (2017-2020)
Figure 2: Rooms and beds occupancy rates, Namibia (2021)
Outlook
There are green shots on the horizon for the revival of Namibia’s tourism industry and the demand for accommodation services in the remaining months of 2021. This could be attributed to aggressive vaccine rollouts which will result into a decline in the number of Covid-19 infections. This will lead to Namibia remaining as low-risk and an ideal travel destination. The upcoming festive season could also drive up the demand for travel retail and hospitality sector for Namibia.