Why Mozambique’s e-Visa Implementation is a Step in the Right Direction
The tourism sector is becoming more and more significant to the world economy. The expected level of consumer spending on tourism, hospitality, and leisure in Africa by 2030 is $261.77 billion. In light of these developments, Africa’s travel and tourism sector has a lot of promise, particularly given the continent’s abundance of natural resources and its capacity to further develop its cultural legacy.
Africa must invest in infrastructure to enable connectivity and accessibility, and nations must modify their policies to facilitate travel, in order to realize the full potential of the continent’s tourism industry. Given that tourism has the potential to enhance the political and economic climate in Africa, the government is starting to show that it has the ability and political will to develop and expand its tourism industry by putting in place the essential infrastructure to make travel easier. Mozambique’s proposed electronic visa (e-Visa) platform is one example of such political will.
Eldevina Materula, Mozambique’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, underlined this week that the country may welcome ten million visitors annually by the end of 2025. According to her, the e-visa is now being implemented and is meant to encourage a bigger influx of visitors and business travelers into the nation in keeping with the government’s package of 20 Measures of Economic Acceleration (PAE). According to the minister, Measure 13 of the PAE is the e-visa, and it is the Ministry’s goal that it would have the intended effect of enabling the country welcome 10 million tourists by 2025.
In the first half of 2022, according to Materula, Mozambique recorded about 350,000 international visitors, compared with some 200,000 for the same period of 2021, which was an increase of 64 per cent.
Simplified e-Visa
A call to action was issued in 2014 during the World Economic Forum on Africa to advance travel convenience and talent mobility in Africa. The Future of Travel & Tourism and the Africa Global Agenda Council both support particular recommendations in order to carry out this agenda. First, African countries ought to think about streamlining the visa application process and working toward the implementation of visa-on-arrival initiatives like those in Rwanda and Mauritius.
Countries that are serious about becoming tourism investment targets are those who are attempting to introduce reforms rather than just enhancing their cultural heritage, cities, beaches, and wildlife conservation. But also concentrate on improving visa convenience.
By streamlining the visa application procedure and implementing e-Visa, Mozambique’s tourism industry will benefit from increased freedom of movement. Currently, only 13 African nations—Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Rwanda, So Tomé and Prncipe, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—offer electronic visas (eVisas).
It is encouraging to learn that a different nation is already preparing to deploy the e-Visa and is aware of its benefits. Startups looking to promote travel and tourism in the nation can benefit from the e-Visa program.
There have been roughly 30 online visa requests since Mozambique implemented the e-Visa program. The first individual to receive an e-Visa is currently in Mozambique.