USAIDs Northern Mozambique Tourism Project (NMTP) ended in 2010. The project helped: (1) To improve the promotion of a Northern Mozambique tourism product, attracting more tourists to the region: (2) to increase investment in the tourims sector in the region to effectively accomodate and benefit from an expansion of the tourism industry; and (3) to preserve key environmental assests on which Northern Mozambique is based.
Tourism
Mozambique is keen on developing its vast tourism potential in a region known as the Arco Norte, comprising the three Northern Provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa. In a strategic policy and paradigm shift, Government in 2009, approved and adopted the “Integrated Resort System” (IRS) as the framework for attracting investments and developing the tourism sector. This policy marks a shift away from the current strategy of attracting ad hoc investments into individual (stand alone) tourism facilities and attractions, to planned and integrated destination development, in which private sector plays the lead role.
The Northern Mozambique Tourism Project (NMTP) will focus on increasing tourism arrivals and expenditure through the promotion of a Northern Mozambique tourism product; attracting investment and creating jobs, building capacity of local service providers, while also preserving the environment. The Northern Mozambique Tourism Project (NMTP) has three main goals, these project components follow:
The plethora and richness of Mozambique’s cultural, historic and natural attractions, especially in the northern provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa, make tourism a tradable sector in which Mozambique potentially has a comparative advantage. It is also a sector in which it can develop international competitiveness. Developing tourism into a major industry therefore remains one of the best options for exports, economic growth, and labor intensive job creation in the Mozambican economy.