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Gondwana: Three Pillars of Success - 13.03.05
Honourable Ambassador, Member of the Namibia Tourism
Board, Managing Director of the NTB, NTB Manager for
Central Europe, Ladies and Gentlemen from the Travel
Sector and the Media,
Thanks to the previous speakers you already have
a pretty good idea by now of Namibia’s young history
and of the biggest challenges that we, the Namibians,
are dealing with – speeding up the development
of our country, creating opportunities for employment
and education, improving the quality of life of all
Namibians. At the same time we need to be careful with
our natural resources and use them in a sustainable
way. In this respect, great hopes are pinned on tourism
which accounts for about 6 percent of GDP. With this
figure tourism lags far behind the two leading sectors
of the economy, mining and fisheries, but tourism is
seen as the sector with the largest growth potential.
And there is hardly any other sector where growth, development,
income and training are so well compatible with the
sustainable use of natural resources.
The Gondwana Desert Collection, which I briefly want
to present to you, is a living example of this. The
aforementioned factors are part of our concept –
which, by the way, we have complied with from the very
start, that is, since 1995:
Nature – growth and
development, which I sum up as Finances
- and employment, education, quality of life, which
I refer to as People. These
are the three pillars on which our company is based:
Nature - Finances - People.
The largest part of Namibia’s Nature
is desert. To be more precise, we are speaking of four
deserts. In the west it is the Namib, which gave its
name to Namibia; in the east, the Kalahari with its
chains of red dunes; in between, the Nama Karoo; and
in the southwest, the Succulent Karoo. The main difference
is generally seen in the rainfall figures. The Kalahari
receives summer rains (from October to April) from the
northeast; the Nama Karoo only gets the very last little
bit of those; the Succulent Karoo can expect rain in
winter (from May to September); and the Namib practically
ends up with nothing, except for the dry river courses
which bear water only after sufficient rains in the
catchment area, and except for the coastal strip which
is the occasional recipient of fog moisture at night.
But nevertheless the fact remains that the deserts are
alive! Everywhere, plants and animals have adapted to
the harsh conditions in such unique ways that many species
are only found here and nowhere else in the world. The
Succulent Karoo, by the way, sustains the richest animal
and plant life of all winter rain deserts.
The people who were the first to inhabit the desert
areas, the peoples of the San (Bushmen), adapted to
their environment as well: they moved about, following
the game, and they used the scarce resources of the
land in a sustainable manner. This changed abruptly
when Europeans started to arrive. Hunters wiped out
many animal species in southern Namibia, including Lion,
Hippo, Elephant and Giraffe; settlers tracked down smaller
predators like Hyena and Jackal, until they had disappeared
from the face of the earth as well. The settlers took
up stock farming, with goats, sheep and cattle, even
though the land was not suited for that at all. This
unsustainable utilization resulted in overgrazing, the
encroachment of bush and the expansion of the deserts.
Since 1995 we are buying farmland in southern Namibia.
We end the stock farming, dismantle the fences and establish
watering points suitable for game, so that the animals
can roam free again and can also find water. Gondwana
Cañon Park, our nature conservation area at the
Fish River Canyon, by now comprises 1.120 square kilometres
– which is a quarter more than the municipal area
of Berlin. We bought and released game species which
once inhabited the area, like Hartebeest, Gemsbok and
even Giraffe. Game counts are carried out at regular
intervals to record and monitor populations –
this is also important for taking care of the game,
which is the responsibility of our qualified Park Manager.
Gondwana Cañon Park is situated in the desert
system of the Nama Karoo, with characteristic plants
like the quiver tree. Since 2004 we have established
another two parks, Gondwana Kalahari Park and Gondwana
Namib Park, extending over 100 square kilometres each.
In addition, Gondwana Sperrgebiet Rand Park joined us
as a partner. This park covers 510 square kilometres,
and most of it is situated in the winter rain area of
the Succulent Karoo. Visitors to Namibia who stop over
in our parks when they tour the south will thus get
acquainted with all four of the desert systems.
This brings us to the matter of Finances.
In all four parks of the Gondwana Desert Collection
we offer accommodation within everybody’s means
and suiting everybody’s taste. Our guests can
go walking on marked trails, they can join drives and
in some cases enjoy a guided excursion on horseback.
No more than 5 percent of the park is used for hospitality
purposes - Dr Chris Brown in particular has kept an
eye on that. Dr Brown is a Director of the Namibia Nature
Foundation, and nature conservation is his responsibility
on the Board. By the way, there is far more water available
in each of the parks than is needed for consumption.
The surpluses which we make from tourism are partly
used for nature conservation measures and for taking
care of the game. We also invest part of them into new
facilities and construction work. One example is the
Self-Sufficiency Centre in Gondwana Cañon Park.
It is a small farming business which takes up a minute
piece of ground and supplies the accommodation establishments
with fresh produce – with fruit, vegetables and
herbs; with eggs; with meat, sausages, ham and bacon;
with yoghurt, cottage cheese and other cheeses. Whether
you believe it or not: our cheese dairy even makes Mozzarella.
This little business covers 70 percent of our demand.
Previously we had to import from South Africa, now we
can serve everything as fresh as it comes. And kitchen
waste is used as pigfeed or it is composted. Our investments
are being acknowledged. Last year we were the only tourism
company in Namibia to be awarded the coveted title ‘Investor
of the Year’.
We also invest a lot into our staff, that is, the People.
Even 15 years after the official end of Apartheid, Namibia
still suffers from the consequences of discrimination:
far too many Namibians have no proper school education,
let alone thorough professional training. According
to estimates more than one out of three do not have
a regular job; many move to the cities where hopes of
finding work often prove to be futile. The Gondwana
Desert Collection contributes its share to fight unemployment
and the drift to the cities. The parks, which are no
other than sheerest countryside, need game rangers,
attendants to take care of guests, drivers, bartenders,
waitrons, housekeeping staff. With the Self-Sufficiency
Centre alone another 10 jobs were created. Gondwana
Cañon Park has more than a hundred employees
today, compared to five or six herders who looked after
the goats in the park’s area ten years ago. Here,
in Berlin, this may be a ridiculously small number,
but I assure you, it means a lot in southern Namibia.
This is also a matter of earnings and career potential.
A waiter in our employ makes at least six times as much
as a goat herder and is therefore able to feed his family
and send his children to school as well. And our employees
have every opportunity to make use of our development
programme for further education and training. We offer
language courses in English and German, because guests
from German-speaking countries still make up more than
60 percent of the total. We enrol our tourist guides
in courses for advanced training. The manager of our
Self-Sufficiency Centre flies to the Netherlands next
month to be initiated into the deeper mysteries of cheese-making
during a four-week course.
In its support for employees the focus of the Gondwana
Desert Collection is especially on women, as they are
still disadvantaged in working life also in countries
like Germany. The focus is also on those who back in
Namibia had, or have, less opportunity than others to
get started in life - as a result of Apartheid and its
consequences, which can still be felt. With this approach
we are taking concrete steps on the road which has been
outlined by our government with the so-called policy
of ‘Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment’.
In other words, the aim is to lend broad support to
previously disadvantaged Namibians. Our single-minded
personnel policy was last year rewarded with a first
prize at the ‘Affirmative Action Award’
– again we were the only company from the travel
sector.
Support for previously disadvantaged Namibians is extended
right up to the top level of our company. The tool for
this is the so-called Job Shadowing Programme. The first
candidate is my Personal Assistant, Anna Geraldo, who
joins me in all my business meetings like my own shadow.
I grant her full access to all matters concerning my
management tasks. In the long term this is the only
way to get rid of the consequences of Apartheid on the
management floor as well.
However, support cannot end here either. A manager is
also an employee, not a proprietor. The Gondwana Desert
Collection is therefore thinking about ways of implementing
ownership in the company. For example, it could be possible
that employees are granted very favourable loans to
purchase shares. We are already one step further at
the 5th level of support. Together with our partner
at Gondwana Sperrgebiet Rand Park we help the community
of the little town of Aus in south-western Namibia to
set up a tourist information centre. The centre will
be linked to the route through the south which we are
marketing in several ways.
Ladies and gentlemen, you can see that all the pillars
are necessary for our visions to bear fruit. Without
nature no tourists. Without tourists no nature conservation
and no jobs. Or on the larger scale: without development
programmes no satisfied people, without satisfied people
no social peace, without social peace no attractive
holiday destination.
In this way we, at the Gondwana Desert Collection, contribute
to making Namibia a more attractive holiday destination.
Because despite negative headlines every now and then
we trust in the future of our country, in our economy
and in our designated President. We are also confident
that tourism contributes to furthering our country –
that it contributes to growth and development, more
employment opportunities, better education and an enhanced
quality of life for all Namibians. And that naturally
it contributes to the conservation, or even the extended
protection, of our magnificent nature. We hope that
even more tourists will come and visit our conservation
areas to savour nature in an almost pristine state and
to get to know the four deserts – while incidentally
contributing to the conservation of this very nature
and helping people to help themselves.
Thank you for your attention.
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