SOUTHERN African leaders are expected to touch down in Namibia next month for a grand tourism expedition meant to market tourism destinations and reap from World Cup 2010 in South Africa next year.

Namibia Tourism Board (NTB), Chief Executive Officer, Digu //Naobeb told Informanté this week, that high profile dignitaries including South African President Jacob Zuma and Swazi King Mswati III will join host President Hifikepunye Pohamba in Oranjemund on August 19.
The event dubbed “Presidential Day” will also be attended by Zambian leader Rupiah Banda, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Angola’s Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and Botswana’s Seretse Khama Ian Khama and representatives from Lesotho and Mozambique.
“This event is an initiative of boundless southern Africa. Part of the legacy issue is to promote tourism ahead of World Cup 2010.
“It’s also a platform to garner investors to invest in tourism infrastructure and generate interest around tourism. Rural communities too benefit from these infrastructure and ecosystems,” said //Naobeb.
In her address on nature conservancies to boost tourism, Minister of Environment and Tourism Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah speaking at Ngoma Village in the Caprivi Region on July 17, announced this grand event saying that treaties would be signed that would include the Tansfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) and Kavango Zambezi (KAZA), all geared towards World Cup 2010 in South Africa and beyond.
She said the current tourism infrastructure, comprising hotels, lodges, safari camps, roads, border posts, airports, airstrips and the untapped potential to develop more tourism facilities, offer a window of opportunity for transforming the region into a world class and premier tourist destination in Africa.
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