Namibia may require a strategic rethink of its long-term reliance on group travel in light of a worrying drop in forward bookings and struggles by FIT operators to find availability due to the widespread practice of tying up accommodation inventory in block bookings.
The Namibian tourism value chain has traditionally been led by group tours, with coach tours dominating the market for the 25 years prior to COVID, as pointed out by Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) CEO Gitta Paetzold.
“This model has been of significant importance, especially for the bigger properties, including hotels and lodge groupings with relatively high numbers of rooms,” said Paetzold.
Existing partnerships with major international travel agents and operators are based on the guaranteed availability of rooms, she added.
“Without this guarantee, they would not risk putting their tours or packages up for sale on the international market. As their efforts contribute greatly to the overall destination marketing effort, the industry has been supporting a block booking model. Without this there would be no group business to Namibia and we would have very little destination marketing considering the limited budgets of the Namibia Tourism Board,” said Paetzold.
But the block booking approach is hindering operators who focus on the FIT market, which is playing an increasingly important role in Namibia’s tourism landscape.
“In Namibia, we begin checking and requesting accommodation 10 months to a year in advance – long before most travellers have even finalised their flights. Despite this early planning, we increasingly struggle to secure space due to the widespread practice of large block bookings during high season,” said Claire Oertle, Owner of All About Africa.
“Our German agents must wait for flight schedules before confirming travel dates but, by the time clients are ready to proceed, well within a reasonable planning window, many properties already appear fully booked. In reality, these rooms are often held under blocks and not genuinely sold,” Oertle pointed out.
Paetzold agrees there is a “huge discrepancy between perceived bookings and real sales”.
She said: “The revelation of a mere 52% official national room occupancy in Namibia’s mainstream tourism sector in 2025, despite Namibia being termed the “sold out destination”, has resulted in many an operator and service provider sitting up to take note, and everyone is shouting for a review of the modus operandi to optimise business for Namibia.”
Considering increasing demand from FIT travellers, the segment needs more attention and the majority of the Namibian travel trade supports fairer and more flexible allocation of inventory, Paetzold added.
“Over the past few years, Namibian service providers have tried, with varied success, to remodel the system and have diversified channels and offerings to meet the needs and demands of the various platforms of engagement, including inbound agents and operators, and the increasing number of online booking portals,” Petzold said.
“The old reliance on international partners needs review but cannot be completely erased and replaced, and the call is on service providers to carefully assess the demand for, value and realisation of block bookings,” she added.
Signs of shrinking demand?
HAN members have recorded a 2.5% decline in average national occupancies from 2024. Paetzold attributes this mainly to limited airlift capacity, access hurdles as a result of the country’s reciprocal visa policy and a growing perception of the country as an expensive destination.
“The slight decline in accommodation numbers recorded in 2025 may be the start of the shrinking of Namibia’s strong middle market traditionally from central Europe. That market is facing cumulative challenges in terms of economic strength and capacity in their home countries and the rising cost of travel to Namibia in terms of air fares, visa fees and tourism service prices,” Paetzold said.
Oertle said, with the visa policy change and an upcoming increase in national park fees, many travellers from the traditionally price-sensitive German market (Namibia’s largest overseas source market) are finding the overall cost of a Namibia trip increasingly difficult to justify.
“Even travellers who booked well in advance for 2026 are now facing unexpected additional charges, which affects their perception of value and complicates our ability to maintain stable pricing. These cumulative changes risk undermining the destination’s competitiveness and some of the current policies are, unfortunately, counter-productive: Namibia is at risk of harming its own tourism momentum.”
