According to a report from the World Economic Forum, Mozambique is among 10 tourist destinations expected to record greater growth in demand for leisure travel in the next decade.

The report goes on to say that emerging and developing countries are the stars of the 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, stating that most have significantly improved their performance since 2015 when the previous report was published. Read more.

Among Mozambique’s strengths are its natural resources, and open visa policy. The report adds that the country significantly rose in popularity due to improvements in information and communication technologies, resulting from increased use of mobile phones, reduced taxes and charges on air transport and the attribution of greater value to its natural resources.

In other news, the World Bank has invested around 200million US dollars in Mozambique over the last two years, with emphasis on the areas of natural resources, environment and rural development. This was according to the World Bank Mozambique director, Mark Lundell, speaking at the signing of a trilateral agreement between the Bank, and the Mozambican and Brazillian governments.

Mr Lundell said that natural resources are the areas which provide an opportunity to generate more productivity for the rural population, more employment in the area of agro-business, and a strong capacity to overcome the deficits on the Mozambican domestic market. “This will also increase the well-being of the country’s rural population,” he added.

This announcement follows closely on the heels of the Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance Minister of Mozambique’s recent announcement that the country’s economy is expected to grow 5.5% this year.