At the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, COTUR received the “Best Tourism Entrepreneur” award at the World Tourism Awards 2025 - a recognition that validates the vision begun in 1994 and projects the next decade.

The “Best Tourism Entrepreneur” award celebrates founders and visionary entrepreneurs with successful, scalable businesses. 

For COTUR, the award comes at a key moment: the company recently opened its European headquarters in Portugal, bringing it closer to aviation hubs, operators and corporate clients and strengthening the Mozambique-Europe bridge. This has been part of the DNA of the company founded by Vali Momade in 1994. 

It's therefore not surprising that Mozambique and Mozambicans are constantly mentioned and valued in the company's frequent distinctions and awards. The truth is that the development of COTUR and Mozambican tourism have gone hand in hand. 

Three decades on, the company remains unstoppable: advanced training programmes, a reinforced commitment to technological development and artificial intelligence, the digitalization of processes and the consolidation of international partnerships with a measurable impact throughout the value chain.

Three decades later, the sector has become a real contributor to the country's economic development. Before the pandemic, travel and tourism accounted - directly and indirectly - for around 6.6% of Mozambique's GDP. Today, with the dark phase of the pandemic behind us, travelers are returning. In the last two years, Mozambique has received around 2.25 million tourists.

For Noor-Momade, COTUR's CEO, who was present in the European capital to receive the award, “this is another great moment for COTUR, for Mozambican tourism and for Mozambique”. 

At an event attended by Mozambique's Secretary of State for Tourism, Fredson Bacar, and Mozambique's Ambassador to Belgium, Berta Cossa, COTUR's PCA recalled the importance of air connectivity, skills and good public policies to convert the recognition of Mozambican companies in the tourism sector into sustainable growth.

In an emotional speech, the Chairman of COTUR's Board of Directors left a special message for all Mozambicans. Switching from English to Portuguese, he invited all his compatriots to continue this work together, “with pride, to show the world our beautiful land and our strong people”.