Turning to the findings of the two background studies, Figure 1 extracts data directly from the disaggregated 2003 SAM to replicate some of the principal results associated with Tourism Satellite Accounts. The figure shows both gross demand and supply of tourism by its principal components. On the demand side we show the main institutional sources of gross demand, namely overseas visitors (exports), resident businesses (intermediate consumption), resident households (personal consumption) and investment. Note that total tourism demand is worth US$330 million, equal to 2.9% of gross demand in the economy for 2003.  




On the supply side we estimate the value added associated with tourism at factor cost, distinguished between ‘direct’ sectors that are predominantly driven by tourism (e.g., hotels and restaurants etc.) and other sectors. Based on national accounting identities, the remaining supply is composed of imports purchased directly by sectors selling to tourists, as well as intermediate 4 supply, trading margins and taxes.  From this we note that tourism contributes approximately 3.2% of total value added (GDP at factor cost), approximately double the value added of the restaurant and hotels sector alone. The direct import share of tourism is equal to 44% of its value added, which compares favourably with the ratio of 47% for the economy overall.


While this exercise provides useful data to benchmark the aggregate size of the sector, a number of further results can be highlighted. First, the overall economic contribution of tourism is moderate but not insignificant in comparative terms. Similar-sized industries from a value-added perspective include fisheries, the construction sector and education (INE, 2007). The segmentation of tourism between the different sources of demand also should be taken seriously. The largest share of gross tourism demand (42%) derives from resident households and only 28% refers to overseas visitors. 


However, the overseas visitor’s market is far from homogenous. Despite the vision of Mozambique as a tropical holiday destination (see above), overseas business visitors represent over 40% of tourism demand and self-drive visitors, who are largely residents of neighbouring countries (especially South Africa), account for a further 28%. It is reasonable to conclude, therefore, that leisure tourists from the more lucrative markets of Europe and North America (as well as East Asia) make-up only a small share of tourism exports and an even smaller share (8%) of total tourism demand.  


As shown in Figure 2, a similar exercise can be followed to apportion value added to the different tourism categories. Once again, the dominance of resident households is confirmed, with the two categories of overseas leisure tourism representing 17% of total tourism value added or approximately half a percentage point of total GDP. Notably, value added per overseas tourist varies dramatically between the three categories. This is demonstrated in Figure 3 which compares each category’s share of the total volume of overseas visitors with their share of value added. 


Self- drive leisure tourists generate the lowest return not only in absolute terms (Figure 2) but most clearly in per tourist terms. Taking the ratio of these two shares, the figures suggest that the value added of ‘other’ leisure tourists is over twice the value added of their self-drive counterparts and slightly higher than that of business tourists.


Although this is small in aggregate and regional economic terms, the tourism industry in Bilene is locally significant when one considers the low population density as well as the general absence of other formal sector employment possibilities. Total sales in Bilene, for example, correspond to approximately US$420 per resident of the relevant administrative area (o posto administrativo da Praia de Bilene) in which approximately 60% of the population live below the poverty line.  


From an employment angle the sector directly constitutes over half of all formal employment in the locality and, obviously, supports numerous other jobs in the formal and informal sectors. The estimates suggest that tourism directly contributes to around 400 jobs in Bilene, of which the majority of employees (60%) have only a basic education. Given that these employees are locally recruited, this indicates that at least 13.3% of total sales stay in the locality in the form of salaries and informal sector profits. 

However, there is little evidence of significant sourcing of intermediate supplies in the immediate locality. Thus, it is the wider region, as well as the capital city, that benefit not only from these expenditures (worth around 40% of total sales) but also from the formal sector profits and high-skilled wages generated by tourism in Bilene.

In Bilene, for example, 90% of all spending is received by ‘formal’ providers of accommodation and restaurant services, leaving 10% to the informal sector. Most striking is the complete absence of independent activity- or tour-operators in Bilene, which typically constitute a central element of the tourism value-chain and a prime means to generate pro-poor local economic impacts (see the example of the Gambia in Mitchell & Faal, 2006; also Ashley, 2006).