Christof Maletsky
9 October 2008
ONCE Parliament has ratified the Millennium Challenge Account agreement with the US government, Namibia's tourism sector stands to gain from a grant totalling US$67 million.
Here is how that money will be divided: * Etosha National Park (US$40,5 million) - To improve management capacity of Etosha, promote private-sector investment in tourism at Etosha, and increase revenue of benefiting rural communal conservancies.
A study will be conducted on tourism carrying capacity, as well as support for potential tourism investments in and around Etosha and other national parks in the North.
MCC funds will also build staff housing and roads and purchase equipment for game translocation.
Promotion of tourism (US$8,3 million) -To develop and promote local and regional tourism packages and create a full interactive ecotourism website.
The promotion of sustainable eco-tourism packages will focus on directing anticipated increased tourists to communal areas adjacent to Etosha conservancy sites.
Eco-tourism development in conservancies (US$18,2 million) - To build conservancy capacity to protect natural resources, attract investment and achieve financial sustainability for households in communal conservancy areas.
Around 31 high-tourism-potential conservancies will get technical assistance and grant funding.
Such assistance will help to mitigate existing barriers to tourism investment and help render the conservancies financially self-sustainable.
In addition, the grant funding to promote joint-venture tourism enterprises between conservancies and the private sector will be provided to a subset of approximately 15 conservancies.
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