Namibia Tourism Board – skill-building for tour guides

Tourist Guide Registration and Information Brochure launched

“Namibia has a demographic advantage with a large population of young people, but this advantage can be realised only if opportunities for the youth are expanded on a massive scale through education and training, especially in the tour-guiding sector.”

The Namibia Tourism Board collaborated with the Directorate of Tourism and the British High Commission to launch a Tourist Guide Registration and Information Brochure for Namibia to enhance initial education and training in tour-guide related areas, upgrading the skills of the existing workforce, building more effective partnerships, and improving communication.

The exceptional pace of change in the tourism industry in Namibia is making it obligatory for tour guides to develop new skills. Opportunities and risks in today’s open business environment require new approaches to strategy and to implementation. Rapid growth, new markets, and ever-changing consumer trends all impose unprecedented challenges. To meet these demands, novel solutions and techniques are needed in the fields of financing, human capital, technologies and marketing. Indeed, the tourism industry in Namibia generates employment, creates economic prosperity and helps cement international understanding and peace. Above and beyond the volume of jobs and the number of visitors the industry generates in Namibia, critical examination of the nature of our industry’s real impact on individuals and communities needs to be done.

Tourism in Namibia has become much more than just another industry. Its development and future prospects are expanding into a momentous economic pillar for the country.

Contact the Namibia Tourism Board for industry-related information, such as quality assurance, establishment registration, general enquiries and tourism updates.

This advetorial was originally published in the Travel News Namibia 2013 Autumn edition.