News and Views
Well, a very warm welcome to this first edition of Namibia Travelogue - the all English tourism supplement published monthly by Tourismus Namibia.
As from now we shall, on the first Thursday of each month, try to bring everyone - visitors and those in the industry alike - a modest, yet varied and hopefully constructive insight into tourism throughout Namibia. We hope you enjoy...
People
NACOBTA - the Namibia Community Based Tourism Association - have seen their virtual founding member move on. Maxi Louis, their director and with NACOBTA since their inception ten years ago, has taken up to a new challenge as Coordinator for NACSO (Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations). Her huge job function will include providing direction and leadership to Community Based Natural Resource Management programmes, including national coordination and strategy planning. Moreover she will be providing networking and communications, including establishing national and international partnerships, fundraising, promoting and publicizing CBNRM policies.
Meanwhile Olga Katjiuongua will be elevated to assume the mantle of 'Acting Director' at NACOBTA, where she will be ably assisted by Erica Ndalikokule, their experienced Training & Business Advice Coordinator.
In June NACSO launched their eminently readable booklet on 'Namibia's Communal Conservancies', an overview of the status, progress and potential of all area conservancies. And a clear and encouraging picture of further growth and advancement is gained from the concise data and graphs contained therein. As Maxi Louis rightfully says: "We can use conservancy development as a management tool with regard to poverty alleviation".
We must record with great sadness the passing of Blythe Loutit, founder member of the Save the Rhino Trust (SRT), celebrated conservationist and renowned botanical artist, who died on June 14th 2005, aged 64.
In 1982 she began working indefatigably in north western Namibia to stop the slaughter of the desert adapted black rhinoceros, organising patrols into the communal lands to counteract both poachers and hapless killing by SADF personnel. Two years later she co-founded the Save the Rhino Trust (SRT). This is an indigenous Namibian non-governmental organisation, which has ever since been actively engaged in the conservation of the desert-adapted black rhino (Diceros bicornis bicornis) inhabiting communal areas in the arid Kunene and Erongo Regions (formerly Damaraland and Kaokoland).
Painstakingly, the rhino population - thanks hugely to Blythe Loutit's tireless efforts and fundraising - has been rebuilt. Numbering only between 30 to 60 in the early eighties, there are now some 200 Namibian rhino. Her work was rewarded by numerous awards, including the Peter Scott Merit Award (1988), the Operation Survival Award (1991) and most recently, in 2001, the BBC's Animal Award for Conservation of a Species which "pays tribute to ordinary people who do extraordinary work for the conservation and welfare of animals". Her husband, Rudi, survives her and will continue her work.
This is the second huge blow to befall the SRT in 2005, for in January, their Director Mike Hearn died tragically whilst surfing off Swakopmund, after apparently suffering an epileptic fit.
A final tribute to the work of Blythe Loutit and SRT in Namibia comes from the DSWF which has been privileged to support them for many years: "This is an excellent example of how the indefinable qualities of character and spirit are able to retrieve an apparently hopeless situation. Blythe, herself an artist, has practised the art of survival for a species whose own character through her years of field work she has come to comprehend like few others."
Donations to the SRT, in memory of Blythe Loutit, can be made by visiting www.savetherhino.org online and specifying SRT Namibia.
Business Affairs
Two established, well known companies operating Safaris and Tours throughout Namibia merged in June. Wild Dog Safaris run since 1997 by the husband and wife team of Allan and Liz Kirby have joined forces with Mike Godfrey's Crazy Kudu Safaris company. The two outfits will continue to run in parallel for the remainder of the year, with separate marketing, advertising and booking procedures. But from 2006 all aspects of the combined businesses will then be streamlined into one operation, producing obvious cost savings but more so benefiting both working practices and tourists alike, with departures of scheduled tour packages set to become even more regular.
The new company will operate from Wild Dog's existing premises at 6 Eros Street off Independence Avenue in Windhoek, with Wild Dog - due to their size and loadings - very much the senior partner in the amalgamation. No retrenchments were necessary with the Crazy Kudu staff all accommodated in the new setup. So there is now a core of some sixteen guides, and training will continue in-house with the emphasis remaining on the trusted formula of developing their own talented guides from scratch.
Allan Kirby explains the logic behind the merger: "Liz and I were simply finding ourselves unable to cope with the ever increasing workload. We organised over 280 departures in 2004, and don't forget that each departure has a return. We have a lot of birding trips which I lead myself, and my absence puts further pressure on Liz with the office management side. Meanwhile Mike Godfrey at Crazy Kudu, a good friend and respected colleague, had perhaps taken his operation as far as it could currently go, was looking at the possibilities for growth and certainly for a stimulating challenge. Our merger has provided all the answers".
Gocheganas Nature Reserve and Wellness Village recently became a member of the Leading Lodges of Africa (LLA) group. LLA have also lately added Villa Verdi, a boutique Guest House in Windhoek and Suclabo Okavango Lodge in the Caprivi to their impressive portfolio. Olivier Van de Vijver, their Marketing Director, recently confirmed that these additions should be complemented by several more in the coming months as Leading Lodges actively further enhance their portfolio of first class establishments. A report on Gocheganas, including an overview of the LLA Wellness circuit, will be published shortly in Namibia Travelogue.
If you have any comments or suggestions, need more information or wish perhaps to submit any interesting travel and tourism related news or articles regarding our new English supplement, please contact Neil Digby-Clarke on [email protected] , who will be delighted to deal with all enquiries.
As from now we shall, on the first Thursday of each month, try to bring everyone - visitors and those in the industry alike - a modest, yet varied and hopefully constructive insight into tourism throughout Namibia. We hope you enjoy...
People
NACOBTA - the Namibia Community Based Tourism Association - have seen their virtual founding member move on. Maxi Louis, their director and with NACOBTA since their inception ten years ago, has taken up to a new challenge as Coordinator for NACSO (Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations). Her huge job function will include providing direction and leadership to Community Based Natural Resource Management programmes, including national coordination and strategy planning. Moreover she will be providing networking and communications, including establishing national and international partnerships, fundraising, promoting and publicizing CBNRM policies.
Meanwhile Olga Katjiuongua will be elevated to assume the mantle of 'Acting Director' at NACOBTA, where she will be ably assisted by Erica Ndalikokule, their experienced Training & Business Advice Coordinator.
In June NACSO launched their eminently readable booklet on 'Namibia's Communal Conservancies', an overview of the status, progress and potential of all area conservancies. And a clear and encouraging picture of further growth and advancement is gained from the concise data and graphs contained therein. As Maxi Louis rightfully says: "We can use conservancy development as a management tool with regard to poverty alleviation".
We must record with great sadness the passing of Blythe Loutit, founder member of the Save the Rhino Trust (SRT), celebrated conservationist and renowned botanical artist, who died on June 14th 2005, aged 64.
In 1982 she began working indefatigably in north western Namibia to stop the slaughter of the desert adapted black rhinoceros, organising patrols into the communal lands to counteract both poachers and hapless killing by SADF personnel. Two years later she co-founded the Save the Rhino Trust (SRT). This is an indigenous Namibian non-governmental organisation, which has ever since been actively engaged in the conservation of the desert-adapted black rhino (Diceros bicornis bicornis) inhabiting communal areas in the arid Kunene and Erongo Regions (formerly Damaraland and Kaokoland).
Painstakingly, the rhino population - thanks hugely to Blythe Loutit's tireless efforts and fundraising - has been rebuilt. Numbering only between 30 to 60 in the early eighties, there are now some 200 Namibian rhino. Her work was rewarded by numerous awards, including the Peter Scott Merit Award (1988), the Operation Survival Award (1991) and most recently, in 2001, the BBC's Animal Award for Conservation of a Species which "pays tribute to ordinary people who do extraordinary work for the conservation and welfare of animals". Her husband, Rudi, survives her and will continue her work.
This is the second huge blow to befall the SRT in 2005, for in January, their Director Mike Hearn died tragically whilst surfing off Swakopmund, after apparently suffering an epileptic fit.
A final tribute to the work of Blythe Loutit and SRT in Namibia comes from the DSWF which has been privileged to support them for many years: "This is an excellent example of how the indefinable qualities of character and spirit are able to retrieve an apparently hopeless situation. Blythe, herself an artist, has practised the art of survival for a species whose own character through her years of field work she has come to comprehend like few others."
Donations to the SRT, in memory of Blythe Loutit, can be made by visiting www.savetherhino.org online and specifying SRT Namibia.
Business Affairs
Two established, well known companies operating Safaris and Tours throughout Namibia merged in June. Wild Dog Safaris run since 1997 by the husband and wife team of Allan and Liz Kirby have joined forces with Mike Godfrey's Crazy Kudu Safaris company. The two outfits will continue to run in parallel for the remainder of the year, with separate marketing, advertising and booking procedures. But from 2006 all aspects of the combined businesses will then be streamlined into one operation, producing obvious cost savings but more so benefiting both working practices and tourists alike, with departures of scheduled tour packages set to become even more regular.
The new company will operate from Wild Dog's existing premises at 6 Eros Street off Independence Avenue in Windhoek, with Wild Dog - due to their size and loadings - very much the senior partner in the amalgamation. No retrenchments were necessary with the Crazy Kudu staff all accommodated in the new setup. So there is now a core of some sixteen guides, and training will continue in-house with the emphasis remaining on the trusted formula of developing their own talented guides from scratch.
Allan Kirby explains the logic behind the merger: "Liz and I were simply finding ourselves unable to cope with the ever increasing workload. We organised over 280 departures in 2004, and don't forget that each departure has a return. We have a lot of birding trips which I lead myself, and my absence puts further pressure on Liz with the office management side. Meanwhile Mike Godfrey at Crazy Kudu, a good friend and respected colleague, had perhaps taken his operation as far as it could currently go, was looking at the possibilities for growth and certainly for a stimulating challenge. Our merger has provided all the answers".
Gocheganas Nature Reserve and Wellness Village recently became a member of the Leading Lodges of Africa (LLA) group. LLA have also lately added Villa Verdi, a boutique Guest House in Windhoek and Suclabo Okavango Lodge in the Caprivi to their impressive portfolio. Olivier Van de Vijver, their Marketing Director, recently confirmed that these additions should be complemented by several more in the coming months as Leading Lodges actively further enhance their portfolio of first class establishments. A report on Gocheganas, including an overview of the LLA Wellness circuit, will be published shortly in Namibia Travelogue.
If you have any comments or suggestions, need more information or wish perhaps to submit any interesting travel and tourism related news or articles regarding our new English supplement, please contact Neil Digby-Clarke on [email protected] , who will be delighted to deal with all enquiries.
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