After almost ten years of successful cooperation, Air Namibia is now extending its representation agreement with AVIAREPS to Asia. With immediate effect, the global leader in airline and tourism management has been commissioned to handle all sales and marketing activities in China, Japan, Korea and India on behalf of Namibia’s national carrier. To date, AVIAREPS was contracted as General Sales Agent (GSA) of Air Namibia in 15 countries in Europe and North America.

The Asian tourism market is increasingly demanding African destinations. According to the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (2008), from 2006 to 2007 the number of outbound travellers from China – Asia’s largest outbound tourism market – to Africa rose by 36.2 per cent. In cooperation with AVIAREPS Marketing Garden in Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul as well as AVIAREPS India in Mumbai, Air Namibia will purposefully enter the growing tourism markets in Asia and further expand its global presence.

“The intensifying interconnectedness of economies due to ongoing globalisation is causing a growing interest among Asians in Western preferences. Hence, an increasing trend of travels to African destinations can already be foreseen – and we want to meet the new demands from Asia at an early stage,” explains Wimpy van Vuuren, Senior Manager International of Air Namibia.

Oliver Kuechler, Chief Operating Officer of AVIAREPS, adds: “We are very proud of the longstanding relationship we have with Air Namibia and their trust in our international competencies. We will put all our efforts into exploiting the opportunities in the Asian market in favour of our highly-valued client.”