Stakeholders’ Perspectives of Domestic Tourism Revival in Namibia Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The study is premised on the notion that a systematic comprehension of stakeholders’ perspectives on domestic tourism is crucial in developing a sustainable and resilient tourism sector in sub-Saharan Africa. The focus of this paper is on stakeholders in the tourism industry in the Khomas region of Namibia located in the central highlands of the country. The study aimed to gather stakeholders’ views on how the domestic tourism industry can be revived in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were done with 35 purposively sampled tourism stakeholders in the Khomas region. The results of the study showed that Namibia focuses attention mostly on international tourism neglecting the domestic market. The locals feel excluded from tourism and prices of tourism products are generally viewed as exorbitant by domestic tourists. As a result, this leads to resentment towards tourism operators by the locals. The study also concludes that several structural issues are hindering effective collaboration among key stakeholders in the Namibian tourism industry.

Keywords

• domestic tourism
• stakeholder collaboration
• stakeholder perspectives
• covid-19 pandemic
• namibia