Today, FACIM hosted a workshop on “Tourism in Mozambique as an instrument for sustainable development”, with interventions from the National Director of Tourism, Claire Zimba, and COTUR's PCA, Dr. Noor-Momade. It was a rare - and necessary - moment when tourism and travel took center stage at a forum the size of FACIM, pointing out practical ways for the sector to have a greater impact on the economy.
Noor-Momade had a simple and objective idea: without airplanes there is no competitive destination. “Without efficient air transport, there is no competitive tourism,” he said, arguing that direct, frequent and diversified connections are the point at which potential becomes real results. From then on, the debate focused on accessibility as a variable that decides price, frequency and attractiveness for leisure and business.
The COTUR executive stressed that connectivity shapes the very competition between destinations: where there are good connections, there are more predictable fares and more operators; where there aren't, the destination falls off the international shelves. “If flights are expensive or rare, tourists won't arrive,” he summarized, also defending Mozambique's integration into hubs international (Johannesburg, Doha, Addis Ababa, Lisbon) to multiply origins via efficient connections and stimulate multi-destination tourism.
There was room to take a realistic look at the terrain. Today, the main gateways (Maputo, Nampula, Beira, Pemba and Vilankulo) face low frequency, high fares and few direct international connections, as well as scarce domestic connections. The result is clear: travelers compare and often opt for neighbors with better accessibility. There was a consensus among those present: solving connectivity is a condition for unlocking investment and employment.
In terms of solutions, three ideas have gained traction: strengthening routes with regional and global hubs, public-private partnerships to attract companies and upgrade regional airports, and creating a national hub (Maputo or Nacala) linking southern Africa to the Indian Ocean and Asia.
At the same time, it is essential to invest in consistent international promotion, in line with these new routes - “routes without marketing don't consolidate demand”, pointed out COTUR's PCA.
He also made it clear that “connectivity is the invisible infrastructure that is essential for transforming potential into real results for tourism in Mozambique”, linking the issue to the private sector's agenda: linking tourism with hotels, restaurants, handicrafts, transport and events, in order to retain value in communities and generate qualified employment.
This workshop left us with good indications and an unavoidable point: we need more debates on this scale with government, regulators, operators and investors.
In the end, it was clear that this path must continue, putting tourism and travel at the center of the public conversation and building bridges with the responsible institutions. As Noor-Momade said, “solutions emerge when public policy and entrepreneurial capacity row in the same direction and that is our responsibility”.