With a focus on sustainability and conservation, the 25th Namibia Tourism Expo, with the theme of Beyond Borders, has concluded in capital Windhoek.

Keeping in line with the central theme of ‘Beyond Borders’, transfrontier conservation was the highlight of the 25th Namibia Tourism Expo, held in Windhoek, the Namibian capital.

Inaugurating the expo, Namibian Tourism Minister Pohamba Shifeta said the greater emphasis of the expo’s theme was on the optimisation of unfolding economic tourism opportunities in Kaza transfrontier conservation region. Kaza lies in the Kavango and Zambezi River basins where Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe converge.

Shifeta said on the Namibian side, river systems include the Linyati and the Kwando as well as the Zambezi-Chobe floodplain. These ecosystems enrich the quality of visitor experiences and increase the monetary value of tourism offerings in the area, he added.

“Moreover, Kaza provides enormous economic opportunities to the rural communities and youth within the region to establish community-based tourism enterprises for economic benefits,” Shifeta added.

He said that the area was a tourism destination that provided a significant economic link or hub for building robust ecological systems and a sustainable tourism economy to benefit the people of the five countries.

Shifeta said that tourism in Namibia directly contributed N$14.3 billion or 6.9 pc to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. The total direct employment by tourism-related industries stood at 57,277 people, or 7.9 pc of total employment.

Nyambe Nyambe, CEO of the Kaza Secretariat, said the conservation area is entering an exiting new phase with its promotion as a single destination.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has recently refocused its efforts to find ways in which transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) can be better utilised for the greater good of not only the specific countries these TFCAs are in, but to the region as a whole. This is aimed at aligning the region to the original aims, including the promotion of inter-regional tourism, of the TFCAs.

The Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) has been selected as the first TFCA that fully lives up to the original idea, and this is why it will be the first conservation area that serves as the expo’s focus.