The number of foreign tourists staying in Mozambican hotels grew by 43% in 2022, to more than 461,000, still only a third of the numbers recorded before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data released on Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
According to INE’s 2022 statistical yearbook, the total number of foreign guests staying in hotel accommodation grew to 461,438 compared to 322,270 in the previous year and 213,543 in 2020.
In 2019, the last year before the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, the total number of foreign guests in Mozambican hotels had reached a record of 1,210,765, according to the same INE yearbook.
The city of Maputo continues to be the location most popular among foreign tourists (200,113), followed by the provinces of Inhambane (106,109) and Gaza (53,057).
The same trend can be seen among Mozambican domestic tourists, the number of which grew by 10% in 2022, compared to 619,173 the previous year. This is still far below the 1,324,940 registered by the INE in 2019, before the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic came into force.
Internally, Gaza was the province most popular among domestic tourists (135,452), followed by the city of Maputo (127,111), and Nampula (119,210).
