Mozambique tourism benchmarks on Botswana
Chakalisa Dube | Friday September 26, 2014 15:02
Mozambique’s Jeremias Manussa the marketing manager at the Mozambique Tourism Authority (MTA) made the remarks in an interview with Business Week over the weekend in Maputo.
“Botswana is one of the countries that have made strides when it comes to marketing its tourism. In fact they are one of the countries we are willing to visit and we encourage other tourism players in Mozambique to visit to learn more with a view of improving their ventures. I do not rule out a visit to Botswana by various tourism stakeholders in the near future. Tourism players in Botswana can also come here to benchmark too. They can learn a thing or two as to how they can improve the tourism sector in Botswana,” Manussa said.
He said the maiden visit by Botswana travel agents to Mozambique was one way of opening doors for more benchmarking initiatives between tourism players in the two countries. Manussa also said Mozambique is currently showing signs of recovery after experiencing a slump last year. He stated that last year 1.9 million tourists visited the country. He said the number of tourists in that country usually hovered above 2 million.
“Last year the country failed to attract over 2 million tourists because of political instability and conflicts in the country. Factors such as political stability and conflict usually play a crucial role when tourists consider which country they should visit. I am confident that this year the country will record a number above 2 million of tourists visiting the country which is usually our target,” added Manussa.
Manussa said that the country has shown political stability in recent months, which is why he is confident that over 2 million tourists will visit. In 2012 Mozambique received 2,113,000 tourists and last year the number dropped to 1.9 million.
Direct losses to Mozambique’s tourism industry was reportedly caused by the conflict between government forces and guerillas of the former rebel movement Renamo. Financial losses were estimated at slightly more than 10 million US dollars between November 2013 and January 2014 only, according to American consultant Ema Batey. According to the Mozambique media, in May this year at a meeting on the impact of the conflict on tourism organised by the Sofala Commercial and Industrial Association (ACIS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Batey said US$8.5 million occurred in foreign tourism, even though foreigners only accounted for 23.8 percent of the industry in the months between November 2013 and January 2014. Business tourism was less affected than leisure tourism. Batey said 10 per cent of business tourists (foreign and domestic) cancelled their trips in the three months under consideration.
“This may be because only 50 percent of the foreign business travellers were even aware of the conflict,” she said.