Mozambique: Local communities should be involved in the tourism industry – businesses

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Mozambique: Local communities should be involved in the tourism industry – businesses

1:52 CAT | 14 Nov 2025

Photo: Diário Econômico

Mozambique’s tourism entrepreneurs on Thursday defended the involvement of communities in creating experiences to generate local jobs, calling on the government to eliminate bureaucracy to make the sector a pillar of development.

The idea is to “involve communities in the creation of tourism experiences, co-create itineraries with local leaders and associations, accredit guides from the community itself as hosts, establish transparent revenue sharing, where a fixed percentage stays in the community to finance small local producers,” said the president of the National Business Commission (CEN) of the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA) of Mozambique, Noor Momade.

Momade, who is also the president of Mozambique’s largest travel agency, Cotur, was speaking at the 20th Annual Private Sector Conference (CASP), regarded as the country’s biggest public–private dialogue and business forum. He argued that a culture of interaction between investors, the government and local communities is essential to transform tourism into a sector that promotes inclusion and protects nature.

“The good tourist is the one who leaves value in the communities and cares for nature. This means prioritising local employment, buying from regional suppliers, and following simple rules for environmental and cultural protection,” said Noor Momade, who believes it is necessary to eliminate bureaucracy to boost the sector.

“The challenge is set: less bureaucracy, more connections, better prices and better service, more jobs and more national pride above all,” Noor Momade called for, explaining that it is up to Mozambique’s government to simplify, speed up decisions and invest in infrastructure to make this agenda a reality.

He also argued that it was up to companies to invest, manufacture equipment, co-finance promotion, and raise the value of tourist services in the communities, and to invest in the aviation sector, where he said competition was needed to ensure low costs, given the fares charged by state-owned LAM for domestic flights.

“The entry of a new independent operator will be good news for everyone, firstly for the citizens: lower and more durable fares,” said the CEN president, who also advocated investing in the training of technicians to ensure “superior service, stronger businesses and stable employment”.

On 4 November, during the International Tourism Conference, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo said that the country must work to reach the “top 10” of international tourist destinations, given its natural resources, fauna and flora.

“We are currently working on a platform that can make visas for tourism more flexible (…) so that someone can, from their home, from their phone, get a visa and travel to Mozambique without any difficulty. We are in a very advanced process between the Ministry of Communications and Digital Transformation and the Ministry of the Interior,” he said at the time.

On the other hand, he added that there will also be the possibility of “obtaining a tourist and business visa on entry for African citizens”, within the scope of the free trade zone, and investment visas, with residency for 10 years, for investments starting at $5 million (€4.3 million) and for five years for investments starting at $500,000 (€432,000).

“We want to work so that investors can get a “Golden Visa” without any difficulty and live in Mozambique,” said Chapo, adding that he intends to “liberalise access for domestic private flights” to “boost connectivity and elite tourism” to the country.

Source: Lusa