Luanda - The municipality of Baía Farta, 20 kilometres south of Benguela province, has seen a sharp drop in revenues in the tourism sector over the past 19 months, due mainly to the negative impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
By Francisca Augusto and Venceslau Mateus
Despite being known for its great diversity of beaches and tourist spots, the locality currently presents a sharp decrease in revenues and tourist movement of around 80 percent, according to data from local authorities.
According to figures made available to ANGOP, before Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, the tourism sector used to collect over three million kwanzas per month for the State coffers, revenues that have fallen since 2020 to almost insignificant 800,000 Kz/month.
The reduction in revenues, a reality experienced in practically the entire country, led to the layoff of hundreds of workers who had in this segment their main source of income.
Specifically, more than two thousand people who made their living from tourism are at home and with no prospects of recovering their jobs, due to the pandemic.
Despite the reduction in revenue, Baia Farta continues to present itself as a good alternative for domestic tourism, with the sector expected to gradually recover in the post-pandemic period.
The municipality has a very rich coastline that stretches from the Morro dos Carneiros (bordering Baía Azul) to Namibe, with beaches and crystalline waters, white areas and fairly scorching sun, likely to attract the attention of tourists.
Its tourist potential includes, among other references, the beaches of Macaca, Baía Azul, the tip of São José and the Moon, which received, before the pandemic, more than 5,000 tourists.
With various shades of blue, but always clean, transparent and warm, the Baía Azul, with about 3,000 of soft sand, is one of the main references among the municipality’s tourist spots.
It offers visitors a wide range of options in terms of accommodation, restaurants and other similar services essential for tourism.
Considered by many specialists as one of Benguela’s main beaches, like Morena Beach, Baía
Azul is perfect for resting and sunbathing, besides allowing exciting dives, and the practice of water sports.
Likewise, Praia da Macaca is a good option for internal tourism, although it seems hidden at first sight and difficult to access.
To get there, for example, the tourist is obliged to walk for a long time up a slope, passing through a small dirt road, in an apparently unprofitable trip. However, those who reach the place discover a true natural beauty.
Besides Praia Azul and Praia da Macaca, Baía Farta offers tourists Baía dos Pássaros, a place famous for its diversity of birds.
Rustic tourism gets a life of its own
Besides the beaches, the municipality has an important lodge that, at first sight, looks like an area of abandoned shacks. Only inside does the visitor discover its beauty. Only three years old, the space has favourable conditions for camping and safaris.
With a workforce made up mostly of young people, it offers visitors a wide variety of entertainment options, but it is the safari that stands out.
Located between mountains, with about 120 hectares, 100 of which reserved for safari, Baía Farta offers tourists an unforgettable experience, close to wild animals, such as lions, gazelles, pacaças, ostriches, chimpanzees, monkeys, among other species.
According to Carla Passageiro, one of several employees at the lodge, the space has changed the life and the way many see tourism in Baia Farta as mere spectators. More investments are just needed to leverage the tourism industry in Baía Farta, taking into account its potential and diversity, comments the worker, who considers it essential to take a special look at the access roads to the municipality’s tourist sites.
From her point of view, the municipality, with investment, will have everything to become a true tourist powerhouse on a national level.
We have all the necessary ingredients to attract and retain tourists in Baía Farta, lots of sun, beaches and accommodation for those who want to do tourism, he says.
Morena Beach, the pride of Benguela
Despite the strengths and potential of the Baia Farta , the Morena Beach still continues to be one of the biggest tourist symbols of the city of Acácias Rubras (red acacias) (Benguela).
Emblematic and celebrated in the voice and pen of renowned Angolan creators, it continues to be the main tourist reference of the city of Benguela, for its charms, love stories and the shade provided by the casuarinas.
One of the best known beaches in Angola, it is very popular with locals and citizens from other parts of the country and abroad, because it is closer to the city than the others, for its beauty and its infrastructures.
Considered to be a place of charms, where the sun beats down on a cool breeze, its five kilometres of coastline are filled with enormous casuarinas that offer amorous songs in their shade for family sits.
According to Alexandre Paciência, a frequent 50-year old user of the place, not even his status as a resident takes away his desire to frequent Praia Morena. Every day there is always something new to see and enjoy. We have many beautiful beaches, like those of Baía Farta, but Morena is unique, it is a charm that makes us lose in time, he says.
Citizen Anny dos Santos says that, because of its charm, she makes a regular presence at Morena Beach.
At least three times a week I come to Praia Morena. It is a great place to relax, recover from the daily stress and recharge your batteries, she says.
At this time, she stresses, in view of the measures to prevent and combat Covid-19, among which is the prohibition of the use of beaches, Praia Morena has been mostly used by students, as it is a calm place for group studies.
If some find the long coastline the ideal place to study or relax, Fernando uses the sandy beach of Praia Morena to show his creative talents, with constructions in the sand.
The intention, says the 20-year-old, is to increase the leisure offer to beach-goers and raise some financial income to solve some of their problems.
Without getting too attached to profits, Fernando says he gets whatever people want to pay, because his focus is on showing work and helping people relax.
To give better convenience, the Praia Morena area is benefiting from construction works , with the placement of a new asphalt carpet, recovery of the pavements and improvement of basic sanitation. It will have granite seats, modernization of the kiosks and other structures.
These actions are part of a package that aims to give a better aspect to some degraded places in the city, with emphasis on the upgrading of basic sanitation.
Hotel network clamours for support
Hoteliers in Benguela province, in general, and Baía Farta, in particular, are also complaining about losses in the hospitality sector due to the pandemic.
Benguela hotel sector is struggling to survive.
In order to save themselves from an unprecedented collapse and to guarantee the maintenance of jobs, the hoteliers are clamouring for a greater intervention by the State, aiming, above all, at maintaining jobs and avoiding bankruptcy of the local hotel units.
Data provided to ANGOP by the Association of Hoteliers of the Benguela Province show that there are over a 1,500 hotel units, with a total of 6,000 beds, including hotels, restaurants and similar.
The president of the association, Jorge Gabriel, said that there was accommodation capacity for those who wanted to make Benguela, particularly Baía Farta, a benchmark in tourism.
He said that the tourism sector was still a rough diamond to be explored, a view shared by civil servant Maria Cahiume, for whom the province had tourism potential that could help drive local development.
From her point of view, the beaches that the municipality of Baía Farta has can ensure the province, with a good investment, in order to attract national and foreign tourists.
It is a pity that this sector is not much valued, the citizen regrets.
In his turn, the elderly Alcino Armando, 70, laments the fact that only now the authorities feel the need to talk about tourism at the Benguela level.
Alcino Armando said that the potential of Baía Farta had always been visible, and so he appealed to the local authorities and others to create measures to attract tourists and investors to the sector, so that tourism can contribute more to the country’s development.
