Current Position at Company:
CEO: Hospitality Association of Namibia
Career History
Gitta Paetzold has for the past 25 years served the Hospitality Association of Namibia, a private sector tourism accommodation organisation, committed to optimising the full potential of the Namibian Hospitality Industry. In her role, Gitta actively aims to build partnerships locally, continental and internationally, in the strong belief that “tourism is everyone’s business.
Regular Congresses and Tourism Trade Fair Forum events arranged by HAN aim to develop and grow the Namibian tourism industry and ensure that the sector follows the trends of the international travel sector. As such, close involvement with arrangements of the Adventure World Travel Summit in 2013, the first of its kind in Africa, ensured that the diversity of the Namibian tourism industry was strengthened from wildlife & safari, to adventure and cultural tourism, making the journey an immersive experience.
With an academic background in political science and first work experience in the media as radio & television journalist, Gitta has always been keen to help “tell the African story”, to ensure that the old narrative of Africa as the “dark continent” is counteracted with beautiful facts of this continent’s natural beauty and uniqueness, as well as its wealth of cultural diversity, as this is what makes this continent so valuable.
Gitta strongly believes that key in developing tourism in Namibia and Africa, is to ensure that the local communities and the African people become actively engaged and responsible for the tourism product development, as the desire of the global traveller in the 21st century is not to do the “go there, do that and get the t-shirt/photo quick trip”, but to immerse themselves and experience a country and its people, tastes and sounds.
