It’s an investment in the distant future. Mozambique is still far from becoming the next holiday hotspot. According to the United Nations data portal, the country of nearly 33 million inhabitants counted just two million tourists in 2021. In comparison, Austria, with a population of around nine million, attracted almost 32 million travelers in the same year, despite the pandemic. In southeastern Africa, the poverty-stricken state lacks many things: access to medical care, infrastructure, electricity, and knowledge of how to attract tourists and what to offer them.
“My impressions were that there is extremely high potential, ranging from the fertility of the land to handicrafts,” emphasizes Claudia Dolezal, the head of the research project “Capacity Building for Sustainable Rural Tourism in Mozambique” (CAST Mozambique) at IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems. “There are products—from cashew nuts to passion fruits—whose exotic cultivation is very exciting for someone from Austria, but the locals don’t know what a tourist wants or what could be interesting.” She describes the problem of lacking know-how about tourist offerings.
“Our goal is to prepare the inhabitants of Mozambique for a future in which tourism could represent an essential component of their economic performance and make them more resilient and less dependent on foreign investors,” explains the project leader. The focus is exclusively on creating knowledge and skills and building capacities, not on establishing tourism businesses per se. Primarily, knowledge building should happen at the university level.
Currently, there is a bachelor’s degree in tourism but no master’s program yet. One of the project’s goals is to establish a master’s program in sustainable tourism. Overall, the entire study program should increasingly incorporate social and ecological content, strengthening the focus on rural areas.
Plagued by Poverty and Climate Change
“The dissemination of this knowledge should lead to growing tourism becoming less about exploitation and more about benefits for the country and its inhabitants,” Dolezal clarifies. This should enable students to connect with future entrepreneurs in rural areas and jointly develop tourism products. Conceivable options include cooking classes, tasting tours, or farm stays.
There are also enough lecturers with doctoral degrees at the partner university, the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, who could teach courses for the master’s program. The Austrian Development Cooperation funds the project, which the Agency for Education and Internationalization (OeAD) implements.
Knowledge about tourism and marketing is particularly lacking because most Mozambicans live in poverty and therefore cannot gain experiences about travel, holidays, and service. According to the Chamber of Commerce, only two-thirds of the local population had access to clean water in 2022. Only one-third had access to sanitation facilities in the same year.
Additionally, extreme weather events are increasing due to climate change. Cyclones and floods destroy houses and infrastructure. “Only very few overland roads are in good condition, and these can become impassable during the rainy season,” writes the Austrian Foreign Ministry on its website about Mozambique. Furthermore, the Austrian Foreign Ministry has issued a partial travel warning (security level 5 out of 6) for the north of the country due to an increased risk of terrorist attacks and assassinations. The rest of the country is currently at security level two.
More Than Just Beaches and Safaris
Mozambique is a deprived country where people face severe existential problems. Of course, deciding which tourism business to start is not at the top of their priority list; they are more concerned with finding a way to survive. Unfortunately, that’s one of the big challenges,” says Dolezal.
It involves “creating foundations in terms of knowledge to show people what possibilities are “there”—especially in rural areas, where the project is focused, where one often has to start from scratch: “Tourism currently focuses very much on the coast, and thus rural destinations are somewhat overlooked and ignored.” The project leader explains that little happens in these areas, with the exception of a national park where safaris might be possible.
The project not only aims to develop a master’s program, but also promotes knowledge transfer between Austria and Mozambique. Dolezal describes Austria as a pioneer in rural tourism and wants to encourage an exchange of ideas with the Mozambique project partners. This should happen, among other things, during an upcoming excursion in Austria, showcasing best-practice examples of sustainable tourism in rural areas.
Moreover, Dolezal is currently working on enabling a student from Mozambique to start her doctorate in Austria: “I see these people as real changemakers because they go back to their home country incredibly inspired, have extremely many ideas, and want to change something.” We can probably only judge Mozambique’s potential as a tourist magnet in the distant future, as it depends on numerous factors.