Tourism Expo in Namibia ROCKS THE HOUSE!


Hey there!

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog.  I was back on the road doing tourism stuff around Namibia and helping different small enterprises with advice and information.

Namibia just finished the 14th annual Namibia Tourism Expo!  What a hit!  It ran from June 6-9, here in Windhoek.

Congratulations to the entire team led by Glenda and Alta, the chief organizers and worker bees!  

The Republikein newspaper (Afrikaans language)  here in Namibia is the host and main sponsor.  They put a ton of money, staff and time into making Expo work.  I think they don't get the kudos necessary for doing this not just for their newspaper publishing company, but for the country!  Putting that Expo together is a maximum logistical triumph.  Namibia's toursim expo is much smaller than the international trade fairs in Berlin or Durban, but in terms of impact in Namibia, it is quite the hit.  There were over 400 exhibitors showing their tourism enterprises. 

The Expo is a great boost for domestic tourism, but also, there were some SADC regional partners exhibiting as well.  Since the South African INDABA in Durban is so overcrowded and SADC countries have been moved out into the backyard so that South African companies can have more prime locations, maybe Namibia should really think seriously about having the EXPO grow, get more overseas agents to come and focus on a forum specifically for SADC tourism companies edged out of the Indaba.  We could grow with this idea and then attract all kinds of travel journalists and agents to NAMIBIA!

A bit ambitious?  Yes... but why not consider it.

Expo mostly shows the people TOURISM in Namibia which is the third largest contributor to Namibia's GDP.  Decision-makers in Namibia need to see this so they understand that more investment in tourism and innovative focus for that investment is a good thing.  Expo shows that 'good thing!'

Google the "Republikein" newspaper for photos of the Expo. 

Jacks on adventure in Etosha!

Jacks on Adventure in Etosha!

Hi again. 

I returned from Etosha National Park in Namibian energized and WOW'd as always.  I have been there so many times, but still it never ceases to take my breath away.  Nothing is ever the same in a huge National Park like Etosha.

If you come to Namibia on Holiday you can see for yourself.

I was a part of a wonderful team hosting one of the site inspectors from the Adventure Travel Tourism Association  ATTA).  Our Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) along with the Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) staff showed their stuff!  The Rangers and scientific students and staff in the Park are amazing!  They did a good hosting job.  ATTA is considering Namibia as a host of their World Summit in 2013.  Namibia is shortlisted (top three finalists!) and they came to check us out! 

We took one of the site inspectors to Etosha to show that part of what Namibia will offer to the delegates once they arrive and do pre-post trips or their two days of adventure during the Summit.

We did a lot of stuff in Etosha.  We did a sunrise game drive, sundowners on the pan on top of a pad of SALT!  Yep... we bent down to touch the white crunchy 'sand' below us and it was all SALT.  I tasted it. In my husband's culture (Oshikwambi) way back, the young men used to have to walk to Etosha just to get a bag of thsi salt for their mothers.  This was a manhood passage rite.  Imagine scared 14-18 year olds trekking 100 kilometers or more from the North into the Pan with only traditional weapons for protection, (lions, snakes, rhinos, elephants, leopards and all!) to get this salt and bring it back. Wow.

This is me with our ATTA guest outside of the Ecological Institute inside Etosha National Park on the grounds of the Okaukuejo Resort of the Namibian Wildlife Resorts.  We are posing next to a elephant skull that has been there for decades.  In that Institute they do fantastic research about all the different animals in the park and the diverse flora, migration patterns, wildfire threats, health issues for the animals, predation statistics, and other amazing and informative things. 

We got a rare opportunity to walk on the rim of the Etosha Pan.  This is what Namibia will offer to the ATTA guests if they choose us as the venue.  Look at the fabulous blue of the sky and the white, chalk of the pan itself.  Distance is a trick on such a flat landscape.  We walked only 20 minutes away from our vehicles out onto the flat pan and looking back, our cars were barely visible!  Just specks on the horizon.  

In the rainy season, where we  are standing is under water and the bottom is a sticky clay.  Many animals have tried to cross at the wrong time and gotten stuck.. sometimes fatally so.  The sun was so bright that day and all was so 'right' with the world.  Seeing such beauty, just calms the soul. 

Thanks to NWR, we had a wonderful lunch right on the Pan.  The food was great! I particularly liked the gemsbok filet wrapped in bacon, but veggie spring rolls and  the tossed salad with fresh Namibian asparagus, various salad greens, walnuts, apple bits and thinly sliced carots was the bomb!  Yummy.

If the ATTA chooses Namibia for the Summit, these are the things the delegates can enjoy too, courtesy of NWR and MET!

Of course, we aren't the only folk in the Park to cross the Pan.  We saw bones of various animals that contributed to the eco system of the Park.  I didn't get a photo, but we saw the bones of a giraffe in a pile, white and picked clean.  The remants of a bit of hide with the giraffe brown spotted colors was all that was left.  Amazing.  Come to Namibia.  But, stay in your car inside the wild areas.  There be lions here....

On our final day in the Park, we went out in the early morning to another waterhole to see what was up.  We found this young man catching the sunrise rays.  He was a bit annoyed at our arrival, but he soon slumped down, dangerously blending into the brush around him (he is the same color!) and went to sleep.  He totally chilled out.  I imagined him wiping his mouth with is paw after having a nice Tafel Lager (Namibian Beer!) and giving a loud belch as he slipped away into slumber.

We saw tons of birds in Etosha.  The one we laughed about the most was called a COREY BUSTER.  I kept saying COREY 'BASTARD' becuase I didn't hear the guide very well over the roar of the game vehcile's engine.  Sorry.. I didn't get a photo of the Corey B bird, but he is a big sucker!  I would guess he is the size of a medium brown dog... yet, he still flies... awkwardly... but he runs for take-off and flies.   

Yet, still, I prefer the delicate birds.  The colorful and beautiful ones are my choice.  My all time favorite is the lilac breasted roller below: 

My friend Pauline took all of these photos and I thank her for this!  I really do love this bird. 

When he spreads his wings he shows the most lovely blues, turquoise, teal, lilac, green and touches of lavender.  He sits in the top branches like this and checks out the world.  The blue of the Namibian sky go so well with his feather colors!

Come to Namibia on holiday and you will see these sights too!

Tell 'em Jackie Sent you.

Until next time....

Jackie

AETC does tourism training!

AE Tourism Consulting is doing another training and informaiton session for civil servants, leaders in communal conservancies, local/regional officials with tourism budgets and plans, and civil society working with tourism.  The title of the session is:

"The Smallest thing can have the LARGEST impact on Tourism!"

[The above photo is of Kholmanskop in the south of Namibia just before the town of Luderitz by the sea!  Google it and learn about the history of this former diamond boom town which is now reclaimed by the desert sands. Come to Namibia and visit this site!]

At the training, we will do role play, show tourism video presentations and be interactive with the audience to make the point that other Ministries, other than the Minstry of Environment and Tourism (MET) impact tourism.  Many of these Ministries do not know about this impact.  They enact regulations or rules or laws or deadlines that actually can damage or negatively affect tourism.  This workshop focuses on that and helps identify these areas so that those Ministries can begin to consult with the line Ministry of Environment and Tourism or the NTB or the tourism industry private sector and get information necessary to help create jobs in tourism by helping the tourism industry grow.

[The above is an weird rock formation at Namibia's only World Heritage site at Twyfelfontein.  Around that whole area is ancient rock art and rock drawings done thousands of years ago by the people who used to live there.  Believe it or not, there is even a drawing of a SEAL in this open desert location hundreds of kilometers from the sea!  Come to Namibia and visit Twyfelfontein.]

AETC is holding the sesson on June 6-7, 2012 at the Safari Conference Center and Hotel here in Windhoek, Namibia.  We start bright and early at 8:00 and go until 4:30 each day.

We have a dynamic team of presenters including myself and two guest specialists.  One guest specialist will present on tourism marketing and how Namibia is seen by the world out there.  The other will speak on Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) and which Ministries impact growth in this sector more.

All are invited.  Contact my project coordinator, Selma, at (264-81-1222290) for local folks, that is:  0811222290.  Or send me an email asheeke@africaonline.com.na or jw.asheeke@gmail.com.  A registration form is attached to the website:  www.africatourconsult.com.

All information needed is also on that website or you can get it through the contact details above.

Sign up now!  We are trying to keep the classes a bit smaller for better interaction.  We are half booked up already and can take about 10 more people!  Sign up and get your payment in NOW.

Thanks!

Bye

Jackie

Namibia and Adventure!

Namibia is short-listed to host the 2013 Adventure Travel World Summit!  This is great news.  Those who are not aware of this summit or this organization, Google it for background.

If Namibia is successful in winning the opportunity to host this summit, it is GREAT for our toursim exposure.  Tourism in Namibia is viable, vital and vibrant, even before ATWS and this summit hosting opportunity came onto the scene.  But, with this different opening, a new face of Namibia just might be available to a new group of people who may not have looked our way before. 

And, we will not disappoint!  We have LOTS to offer!

Adventure is our middle name in tourism here in Namibia.  Just seeing all that the country offers is an adventure... we sell an EXPERIENCE here, not a destination.  Biking through rough areas where human beings usually don't even venture; quad biking on and around natural sand dunes as high as a sky-scraper in New York, skiing, sand boarding or sand sledding down those same dunes will rock your world!  All kinds of water sports, dolphin cruises, water skiing, paragliding, hiking and camping in areas that are so remote and isolated that you will indeed feel small in this world and other activities. 

I am on an excited and prepared team of people, led by our Director of Tourism, who are receiving and hosting the ATWS judging team when they arrive.  They are coming to Namibia on the 15th of May... in a week!  I will be taking one of the members through Etosha National Park and the properties of the Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) and then going onwards to the Coast of Namibia (Swakopmund and Walvis Bay mostly) where our colleagues there have prepared special experiences for the event (should Namibia win the bid) which they will show to the site judges.

I will take some pictures during the visit and post them (if I master the technical stuff of getting it done while I am on the road working in areas with no internet connection!).

ATWS judging team!!!  Welcome to Namibia... you're going to love it!

Bye for now...

Jackie 

Gemsboks Gallore!

Hello Again!

Being a novice blogger and still getting the 'hang' of things, I think I noted that I have a 'follower'.  Thanx.  Hopefully, after I get better and after I get the IT gurus to link this blog to my company website (www.africatourconsult.com), then I will have more 'hits' and more 'followers.'

Namibia recently had one Oryx sell at a game auction for N$900,000!  That is (at 7.7 to one USD) about $117,000 US. GREAT!  It makes a strong and positive statement on the issue of 'what is the best land use' in the dry conditions in Namibia.  Namibia is a semi-arid country, but culturally and economically, people of all ethnic groupings prize and value raising cattle.  Yet... the water (or lack of it!) makes this unproductive for most Namibians trying it on the smaller scale.  Unless farmers are lucky about where God placed an aquifer or other viable underground water sources, profitable cattle farming is a challenge.

BUT.. game farming can be a great thing!  It has the wild animals living in their natural areas, eating and drinking as they have adapted to do so.  What wonderful game viewing we have in Namibia! 
If you come here on holiday, you will see it too. But, Namibia is not a game viewing destination. We are the FULL MONTY! We have the high sand dunes, the cultural interactions, the long fabulous coastline with ship wrecks in the sea...along with the game!  We have game on many guest farms where you could stay or in Etosha National Park booking your accomodation in Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) properties!   The photo above cuts off the high horns of the Oryx, but it is the only one I had available.  The little babies are brown like that at first, then they come into their coloring.

I digress....

This N$900,000 Oryx, or Gemsbok ... the Afrikaan- speaking people say that 'G' in Gemsbok, like a weird hard 'H' sound.. almost like they are getting ready to spit (sorry for this yucky image).  It is pronounced as a hard 'G', not like gems or gemstones.  It is like the hard G in 'Gimme your money!' like in a mugging.

Sorry again for the analogy... but I wanted to give the sound correctly.

This Gemsbok that sold for so much is unusual ... it is special.  It is golden (actually a glossy shiny light brown in different shades, golden in the sun though)  in color.  The rest of these wonderful antelopes are usually different shades of gray, but all looking alike when they are grown up.  They all have faces with white lines of hair around their eyes and black and dark gray around those white lines.  Google a ORYX and I am sure you can find better photos.  Their most distinctive mark is those long, long pointed 'antlers' or horns on their head. These things are straight up in the air and leaning sort of back.  Those 'horns' on their heads can stick up at least a yard (a yard = three feet or a slight bit longer than a meter) and even longer for the bull males! I saw one in Etosha with one of the horns growing off to the left!  It looked like a goal post on an American football field where one of the post was in the process of being torn down by fans!

When you come to Namibia on your holiday... you will see lots of Gemsbok.  Maybe not the golden N$900,000 one, but, you get the point. (no pun intended)

Bye for now.
Jackie

Hi there again....

Sorry I was off line for almost three weeks.  Work in tourism in Namibia is never-ending, so I was off doing my thing!

LIONS... yep.  There be lions here. 

This photo above is of the Stinkwater pride near the Namibia Wildlife Resort's (NWR) Onkoshi Camp... NWR calls it a 'camp' but it is a LODGE and actually a quite nice one. 

When she knew I was going to live my life in Africa, my Momma implored me not to go anywhere where I was not the top of the food chain.  That warning aside, I go into Etosha National Park in Namibia ALL the time and it is wonderful!  I keep it real though...this is not Animal Planet or the old 'Dakatari' series on TV.  This is the real deal.  The lions in Namibia are many and are a sight to see when you come here on your vacation!  But, they are wild and it is us humans who are invading THEIR neighborhood!  So we must make allowances for their living needs first. 

My first rule is this:  There shall be no Jackie-burgers served up in Etosha. So, I follow my guide's and the Park Ranger's rules and enjoy from safe distances.

The NWR Onkoshi lodge is built right on the Etosha Pan itself.  Actually, we probably shouldn't have built that lodge in that spot, due to lack of fresh water (we have to truck it in!) and the roads in and out are left 'natural' and that plays havoc on the supply trucks and other vehicles.  Our staff working at the lodge have had some lion adventures that are hair-raising!  But, with careful safety measures, we have solved that problem. Still, we have challenges.  Right now, our guests have to use NWR vehicles only to get in and out and that is limiting.  Thankfully, we learn from mistakes and make sure something GREAT comes from the situation.

The new road to Onkoshi will be finished probably in about 10+ months or so; NWR is working with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to make that happen.  Slow is better in sensitive environments.  We don't want to make an environmental mess and piss off the Stinkwater family above as well as our resident bull elephants by massive digging and noisy construction, so we must proceed safely (for our workers sake!) and carefully with as small a green footprint as possible.  Haste makes waste indeed!

But, the Onkoshi lodge is there and wonderful! Go online to NWR and I am sure you can get some photos of the inside of the luxury bungalows there.   There are only about 15 bungalows so you can have a private vacation stay if you go there.   Wow.... I love just lying on the giant king-sized bed and pulling the wall/windows wide open and watching the Flamingos fly over the pan and falling asleep for a nap just before the sun sets ...what colors!  Wow...  The sunset hues of lavender, mauve, deep pink-orange, fading into cobalt blues and shifting to midnight blue is amazing!

Waking up in the morning and looking down across the 'sands' of the salt pan and seeing the various animal tracks tell a story of what could have happened in the dark of the night.  You hear all the sounds and that, in itself is a thrill!  The bungalows are up on stilts and walkways connect the entire thing suspended about 14 feet above the ground.  It is safe, but you are close enough to hear the animals moving below in the night. 

Onkoshi's prices dropped significantly from last year and the year before.  You should consider booking there during your Namibian holiday.  Get to Air Namibia's website and find a connection out of Frankfurt that will bring you straight to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.  Hook up with a tour operator like Sense of Africa or SWAsafaris or Ultimate Safaris to get your arrangements together for your three week visit (or less) to Namibia. 

Do me a favor...no matter what tour operator you work with, insist on staying at Onkoshi Camp inside Etosha National Park for at least one night!    You won't regret it!

Tell'em.... Jackie sent you!

Have fun.... 

Dear All,

"Winter" is here in Namibia.  But, our winter is not like other places in the West and North.  Winter for us is brisk mornings and evening and sometimes downright cold mornings and evenings, with warm and even HOT weather during the day.  Desert weather is Namibia's weather in most places.

Of course the coast is very different and the South of Namibia can be colder than anywhere else.  I have read that the only place in Namibia to ever get snow was a place called Aus in the South of Namibia.

I always have found it interesting that Namibians, when the temperature dips even slights, bundle up as if it is the Arctic here!  I was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and lived in various locations in the US and in Europe during my lifetime.  Winter for me means ice storms, sleet, and wind chill factors.  Now, that is the Arctic and that needs bundling up!

Come to Namibia now. This is the best weather for it!

Bye.

Jackie