Overcoming challenges, innovating and building a mozambican tourism development approach

In recent decades, the economy of tourism has added to its technical structure a set of scientific knowledge that gives a contribution for initiatives of intervention and support to the sector to achieve more concrete and effective results in terms of economic dynamic, generation of employment opportunities and support to sustainable development, especially at the local level.

This way, we would like to join those colleagues, experts on the matter, who have been debating tourism development in Mozambique and, in particular, creating a reflection on a concept that is increasingly present in the discourse and practice of the economic policy of tourism, the Management of Tourism Destinations.

For this aim, it is necessary to start with a brief analysis of the current situation and then see how this technical concept, common in the scientific area of tourism, can help on issues of public and private interventions increasingly effective from an economic and pro-poor point of view, to mean that it contributes to poverty alleviation.

As already known in the South East African region (SEA) [1], tourism presents itself today as an important economic activity that makes a decisive contribution to the generation of thousands of jobs, income opportunities and the effective increase in public income (10%), well above the world average of 5.5%.

According to the SNV tourism indicators, regarding six countries of the SEA, tourism in 2008 contributed to the generation of US$ 2.2 billion in resources to the states in the region. Also, it is attributed to tourism the generation of 1.274,000 jobs, or 8% of total labor force employed in these countries.

In the Mozambican context, thanks to the eminent work of the Ministry of Tourism (MITUR) and the private sector, tourism industry has shown important vitality to contribute effectively to the GDP (6%), generating thousands of direct job opportunities in different states and provinces and contributing to the distribution of income and enhancement of the cultural and environmental potential of the country.
From the data provided by MITUR, we can see that tourism activity is a business that shows an average growth of around 10% per year, which employs approximately 35,000 people and pays the state tax revenues of US$ 127 million. In this sense, tourism has gained through the improvement of conditions at the institutional/governance and market level a increasingly important position on the economic agenda and in national politics.

Looking deeper into this data, and combining these results in the context of empirical experience of SNV on Pro-poor Tourism (TPP), we can see that tourism in Mozambique, although showing significant signs of growth, needs to invest in the diversification of its production base, exploring the development of new products in order to increase local community participation and improve a more competitive and sustainable development environment.


Table 1: Spending per day in SEA countries.

		2007	2008	2009
1	Rwanda	250	260	270
2	Kenya	200	220	270
3	Tanzania	155	171	188
4	Zambia	105	112	118
5	Mozambique	70	75	80
6	Ethiopia	50	55	70

Source: SNV, 2009


Table 2. Average stay of tourists in SEA countries

		2007	2008	2009
1	.Kenya	7.5	8	8.5
2	.Mozambique	2.2	2.5	2.5
3	.Rwanda	4.5	4.5	5
4	.Tanzania	13	13	14
5	.Zambia	6.3	6.4	6.6

Source: SNV, 2009

As shown in Tables 1 and 2, although Mozambique has a share of 17% of the market among SEA countries, some performance indicators are still modest when compared to other countries in the region, especially if considering the great potential that tourism represents for the country.

The previous tables show another important aspect, the spending by tourist who visit Mozambique as well as the period of stay is at the lower range of all the SEA countries, with only 2.5 days of stay and a US$ 75 dollars spending per day, well below the reality of Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia, for example.

It is worth noting that Mozambique presents today exceptional and fundamental conditions for its tourism development. Social and political stability are to be highlighted as well as the significant progress in indicators of economic and human development, the important base of natural and cultural attractions and their high quality, with emphasis on the hospitality of the Mozambican people.



All this puts us in a series of questions that deserve some emphasis:

How to extend the period of stay and spending of tourists who visit Mozambique? How to attract more tourists each year and achieve economies of scale? How to make the Mozambican citizen contribute to the growth of tourism supply and increasingly benefit from the economy of tourism?

To address these important issues, it is necessary to acknowledge that tourism is a transversal economic activity (because it exerts influence and is influenced by a number of sectors) and thus, it becomes important to understand the development of tourism in the framework of a specific territorial context, which means limits, knowledge and assets in a specific physical and territorial space.

As such, and solely in the aim of putting all on the same conceptual stage, although not aiming to be exhaustive on this concept, we may understand Tourism Destination as:

"a territory specialized in fulfilling the needs of tourists and does so in an economically profitable, socially responsible and environmentally eco-efficient way."

The idea of tourism destination, therefore, brings a number of key issues to guide the economic policy and the implementation of supporting programs for the development of the sector, as explained below.

First, the need of territorial delimitation, i.e., there is a need to formally define the territory that will be worked on or for any incentive. This is part of that universal principle which states that we live constrained by the scarcity of resources.

The demands of qualification (legal, physical and human) of the area are always or almost always larger than the capacity of intervention. In this sense, the demarcation of the area in case allows a better allocation of resources and greater synergy between the investments being made, and with it the hope for better results.

Two practical examples of this reference are the Program of Diversification of Tourism Supply in Inhambane, led by the Provincial Directorate of Tourism and SNV and the Anchor Investment Program in Tourism, led by the Ministry of Tourism and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). In both initiatives, while from different development strategies, you can see the territorial delimitation as a basic and structuring element of tourism development.

Similarly, there is a need to work on the number of provinces/cities/tourism areas as well. We must map out those areas (macro or micro) that already have advanced levels of development (clustering) and support them through incentives, and through legal and human structures.

A second point to be emphasized is that the destination must be greater than the sum of its parts, in this case the parts are the natural and historical attractions, the public infrastructures, the local population and the local business and cultural attractions. The concept of tourism destination should encourage, locally, the governance and marketing aspects, the public-private cooperation and integrated marketing activities among others. All this is done in ways to seeking the synergy between the various local actors that are part, exert influence and are influenced by that territory.

In this way, thinking about the development and marketing of tourism destinations suggests certain logic different from the traditional way that tends to "individualism." So we must understand that the success of a tourism venture depends directly on its capacity to promote economic growth while sustaining the social, environmental & cultural assets that make it possible.

Finally, the concept of tourism destination brings to light the need for participatory management, a principle that supports the idea of dividing responsibilities with government, encouraging a democratic based situation where all stakeholders, local people, businessmen and government, have the voice and capacity to collaborate on the decisions that may affect the sustainable development of this activity.


Put this way and to finalize this analysis, it is worthy highlighting the experience and contributions of SNV for the development of the Pro-poor Tourism here in Mozambique, an experience that, when aligned with the prospects and challenges of development of tourism destinations, contributes to the formation of a sense of unity, a vision for the future among people, entrepreneurs and government. It encourages the formation of a platform for dialogue towards the formalization of a national model of development.