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Responsible
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Supporting BBEE
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One of the most important aspects of ensuring the long-term feasibility
of Sustainable Tourism
activities in Namibia is to get inhabitants across the entire spectrum
of society interested if not directly involved in them. Increasing
awareness
of the value of conserving and responsibly utilising our natural
resources and cultural heritage and
providing
new business and employment opportunities are
amongst the most pressing issues to address. |
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While many organisations have been
busy spreading the message and setting up a basic infrastructure at
grass-root levels for many years, the Namibian Tourism Industry
took the lead in formulating a Transformation Charta for its
private business sector.
It covers all areas directly and indirectly affected by tourism
activities, - from training of staff to supporting surrounding
communities and taking on mentor roles in emerging tourism
enterprises -, with the aim of laying the foundations for the
economic empowerment of previously disadvantaged population groups.
Countless so-called BBEE
(Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment) Projects emerged, since
the milestone tourism industry congress took place in 2005. Many
small and some larger ones had been in existence for years already, with
members of the
Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) based in rural areas
in the forefront of such initiatives. Soon others followed those
examples, and today there is hardly any established accommodation,
tour operator, car rental, catering, and tourism marketing business
anymore that is not involved in BBEE activities in one way or
another. |
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Yet, the scale on which
transformation has to take place is enormous in vast developing
countries like Namibia and much remains to be done. Support in terms
of expertise and finances is required in almost any area of the
tourism industry.
Although larger BBEE projects may
qualify for receiving both through foreign development funds, the majority are
small - often localised - ones that depend entirely on the personal input of
their initiators:
Privately owned guest farms and game lodges in remote
locations providing schooling facilities for their employees' children
or assisting nearby ethnic communities in setting up small farming
or manufacturing enterprises and purchasing their products; small
specialised tour operators jointly contributing to the development
of cultural villages by focussing some of their sales and marketing
efforts on cultural tours; restaurants in tourist centres
supporting
previously in-house trained service and kitchen staff in obtaining recognised
qualifications through the payment of course fees; some smaller
accommodation establishments following the EU initiative "Cleaner
Production" for reducing water and electricity consumption as well
as waste products; experienced tour
guides training newcomers at their own expense and time ... to name
but a few.
Each tourist travelling through Namibia therefore makes a valuable
contribution not only to the large and usually well-promoted development
drives but also to such private sector BBEE initiatives without which
many of those small-scale projects would not survive. |
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One of the key aims
of BBEE is the transfer of skills and knowledge to those who did not
have access to obtaining both, prior to Namibia's Independence.
Some Namibians actively involved in tourism and related
fields for many years shared their experiences with
Namibia-Unlimited.com ....
read more |
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