NWR champions cross-border tourism

By Confidente Reporter
THE Namibian Wildlife Resort (NWR) has taken a leading role in facilitat­ing cross-border tourism products that are now profitable and branded, while having a direct and positive impact on com­munities, a recent expert workshop on Cross-Bor­der Tourism Products within the Southern Afri­can Development Com­munity (SADC) Trans­frontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) revealed.
The products offered by NWR has contribut­ed towards employment and skill-transfer within the surrounding areas of Namibia’s National Parks, of which a good example is the bi-annual Desert Knights Mountain Bike Challenge that happens every April and Septem­ber within the /Ai-/Ais Richtersveld Transfrontier Park.
TFCAs held in Johan­nesburg, South Africa was attended by NWR person­nel, officials from the Min­istry of Environment and Tourism (MET) as well as representatives of the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB).
According to NWR’s Managing Director Zelna Hengari it is upon reflec­tion on the discussions that place, where the role of the parastatal in cross-border tourism was “emphatically” highlight­ed.
“In addition to that, NWR recently launched a tour of the Kavango Zam­bezi Transfrontier Con­servation Area (KAZA TFCA) countries were late last year,” Hengari said.
“[NWR] took some of the KAZA country Am­bassadors stationed in Namibia on tour in order to give them first-hand experience of what NWR will be offering national, regional and international tourists. NWR, therefore, believes that this is a new window of opportunity that can significantly con­tribute towards Namibia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).” Hengari stressed that the discussions to de­velop transfrontier links between South Africa and Namibia dates back to 2000 and they bore fruit in 2003 when the two coun­tries environment and tourism ministers signed the international treaty.
FOR FULL STORY GET A HARD COPY