The government is positioning tourism as a major avenue for youth employment and entrepreneurship, with new strategies aimed at expanding opportunities across Namibia’s tourism value chain.
Tourism minister Indileni Daniel said the tourism sector has significant untapped potential to create jobs and sustainable livelihoods for young Namibians.
Responding to questions on youth empowerment, job creation and entrepreneurship in Parliament, Daniel said tourism has a ripple effect that creates opportunities beyond traditional accommodation and restaurants, including agriculture, transport, the creative industries, information and communication technology, retail and events.
She said a whole-of-government approach is needed to ensure training and skills development are aligned with market demands, while graduate programmes must become more responsive to improving employment opportunities for young people.
Daniel identified community tourism, supplying goods and services to accommodation establishments, digital tourism services, agritourism, sport tourism, creative tourism and tour guiding as some of the opportunities available to youth.
She said the new National Spatial Tourism Development Master Plan (NSTDMP) identifies the streamlining of youth involvement and participation in tourism as one of its eight strategic interventions.
However, Daniel said the lack of reliable employment statistics remains a challenge.
“The interventions must be informed by factual and credible data,” she said, noting that tourism employment statistics are currently not available.
The ministry plans to conduct industry surveys, including a tourism employment survey, while working with the Namibia Statistics Agency, the ministry of labour and and the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) to improve tourism-related statistics.
Daniel also highlighted skills development already being provided by the ministry and the NTB. During the 2025/2026 financial year, 129 small and medium enterprises were trained in entrepreneurship, financial management and tourism product development.
The master plan also provides for the establishment of a Tourism Transformation Fund to support youth with relevant skills and capacity, as well as youth-owned tourism enterprises across all 14 regions.
According to Daniel, rural youth could benefit from opportunities in hunting and photographic tourism, cultural tourism, gastronomy and agritourism.
The plan further prioritises tourism infrastructure, domestic tourism and community-based tourism enterprises as part of efforts to revitalise the sector.
During the 2025/2026 financial year, 99 SMEs, 60% of them youth-owned, received support to participate in selected regional and international trade fairs and exhibitions. Daniel said this provided exposure, business development opportunities and networking prospects.
The minister said youth participation in tourism must extend across the broader value chain, creating opportunities for young people not only as employees, but also as entrepreneurs and suppliers.
