Analysis
- International tourism continues to recover from the Covid-19 crisis at a robust pace from January-June 2022. This has resulted in Namibia recording a total of 114, 731 arrivals in the first six months compared to a total of 21, 779 recorded during the same period last year
- On a monthly basis, International arrivals showed an improvement of 2% for June 2022 in relation to May 2022
- On annual basis, International arrivals increased significantly to 23338 compared to 3419 recorded during the same period last year. The significant improvement can be attributed to eased travel restrictions across the globe and a pent-up in travelers’ confidence.
- The tourism recovery gains momentum as the Covid-19 cases continue on a downward trajectory for Namibia, hence an increase in demand as there is no longer fear from travelers
Figure 1: Monthly HKIA Arrivals (June 2017-June 2022)
Outlook
We anticipate a gradual recovery in the number of arrivals and the entire tourism industry is expected to remain positive throughout 2022, due to the green shots to tourism growth. However, a challenging economic environment coupled with the geopolitical uncertainty of the Russian Federation on Ukraine poses a downside risk to the ongoing recovery of the tourism industry.