Mozambique: More than 13,000 travellers on visa waiver since May, 3,000 for business purposes

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Mozambique: More than 13,000 travellers on visa waiver since May, 3,000 for business purposes

3:07 CAT | 07 Aug 2023

Photo: Ministério da Cultura e Turismo

More than 13,000 foreign nationals entered Mozambique under the visa waiver measure introduced in May, the vast majority tourists, according to the government.

Data provided by the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Eldevina Materula, of visas granted at the border reveal that “more than 10,000” entered Mozambique “for the purpose of tourism, and the remaining 3,000 for business’ ‘.

“This is a clear sign that government measures are having an effect on boosting the sector. With these measures, we clearly have a new pattern of tourists, with American, British, Portuguese, Chinese and German nationalities standing out as the five main categories and 7,927 tourists since the entry into force of the visa waiver last May,” the minister said.

The minister was a passenger on Sunday on the first resumed LAM flight from Johannesburg to Vilankulo, the tourist spot in Inhambane which is currently “the main leisure destination” in Mozambique.

“The return of Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique to this route is befitting, given its relevance in the value chain for the consolidation and promotion of national tourism, and given that its intervention improves the prospects for the involvement and stimulation of more Mozambican players in tourism,” Eldevina Materula said.

With 700 kilometres of spectacular coastline, the province of Inhambane has 789 tourist enterprises, according to figures presented by the minister, which employ “about 7,000 workers, contributing about 10% of a total of 8,154 enterprises and 70,718 workers” in the sector country-wide.

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In 2022, the tourism sector in Mozambique raised 81.2% more in revenue than the previous year, and Inhambane alone “received 197,054 tourists”, representing 22.4% of the country’s total.

The numbers are a “clear sign of the revitalization of the sector” of tourism post-Covid, but also “clear signs of the results of the implementation of the package of economic acceleration measures”, namely the “intervention in the fiscal area , stimulating the economy and improving the business environment, transparency, governance and the acceleration of strategic infrastructure projects”.

“In this context, in December 2022, the Electronic Visa (e-Visa) was introduced and on May 1 of this year the visa waiver measure for citizens of 29 countries was implemented, alongside extended investment visas for foreign citizens who hold investments in Mozambique. We have also simplified the requirements for granting a business visa, to the same as those for a tourist visa,” the minister pointed out.

“In the first six months of the implementation of the e-Visa, more than 28,000 were requested via the electronic platform, with 49% for tourist visas, 48% for business visas and the remaining 3% for visas for sports and cultural activities, transhipment of crew and investments,” the Minister of Tourism detailed in conclusion.

READ: Mozambique visa waiver sees 12,000+ travellers in first 2 months

Source: Lusa