Creating awareness around cultural & indigenous tourism

On the eve of the official start of the Adventure Travel World Summit Saturday, Team Destination in conjunction with the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance (WINTA) is hosting a one day workshop on indigenous tourism, culture, arts and crafts in Namibia. 

Starting today, the workshop will be attended by more than 250 participants, including the chairperson from all 79 conservancies in Namibia and 12 conservancy game guards. 

Living museum of the Mafwe dancers

According to the organisers, the aim of the workshop is to provide a platform through which issues facing cultures, tourism and indigenous people are discussed and explored. The workshops other goal is to formalise a concept note of indigenous tourism on a global scale. 

Some of the talks during the half day seminar include the topics of:

•  Namibia’s current culture and heritage (indigenous tourism) offerings. What are some of Namibia’s successes? What issues do indigenous communities face when pursuing cultural tourism development.
• Feedback from the WINTA pre-summit trip to a variety of sites around Namibia: observations of success, current gaps and future possibilities. 
• Rights and access of indigenous people to tourism opportunities
• The role of Living Culture Museums in Namibia’s tourism profile

These, and other topics, will be presented to participants one day before the welcoming ATWS event in Windhoek, at Parliament gardens. 

Traditional Owambo dancers.

Cultural tourism has been defined as “the movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their normal place of residence, with the intention to gather new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs. These cultural needs can include the solidification of one’s own cultural identity, by observing the exotic ‘other’.”

WINTA members attending the workshop will do so right after they had been given a taste of Namibia’s cultural attractions. These include participation in tours which took them to the Mafwe Living Culture Museum in the Zambezi region, the Kwe San Trackers at TEKOA in Bwabwata National park and a special event with the Sheya Shuushona conservancy. 

The workshop takes place at the Hilton Hotel in Windhoek and starts at 08h00.