Mozambique expects over a million tourists in 2007

Mozambique is expecting over a million foreign visitors this year, the largest number in decades, the Deputy Tourism Minister said on Tuesday.

Rosario Mualeia told the Mozambique News Agency that foreign visitors would bring about $150-million to the country.

“This year is really expected to be the best year in the last few decades in terms of the number of tourists visiting Mozambique,” he said.

Mualeia said investment in the tourism sector was expected to total $250-million this year, $100-million more than in 2006.

Mozambican authorities recently launched a package of incentives to encourage investment in tourism.

The scrapping of visas for visitors from neighbouring South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Botswana has boosted tourism.

Procedures are also under way to drop visas for Zimbabweans.

The former Portuguese colony with its Indian Ocean islands and long stretches of palm-lined beaches has increasingly become a popular tourism destination. The country, which was wracked by a civil war lasting from independence in 1975 to 1992, has become a model for economic reform.

Mualeia said the number of tourists visiting Mozambique was increasing by 7% a year with most visitors coming from South Africa, Portugal and Swaziland.

The capital Maputo, the southern town of Inhambane and Nampula in the north are among some of the country’s more popular destinations.