Smart tourism breathes life into Namibian desert mining town

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

UIS, Namibia (AFP) — Having lost their only income source when the Uis tin mine that was their lifeline shut down, a community in the Namibian desert is slowly being resurrected by locals using innovative tourism.

Discovering the tourist appeal of a pre-historic cave painting in the nearby Dâureb mountain, a group from the community set themselves up as guides, attracting foreigners to their tiny settlement in the desert.

Namibia's highest mountain, the granite sides of Dâureb rise up like a giant fortress in the middle of the desert, housing a long unexploited treasure whose tourism value the community stumbled upon in their darkest hour.

"It was very hard to live. The mine was the only source of revenue", said Alfons !Uwuseb [Eds: correct], 36, who now...