The CTA-Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique said Wednesday in Maputo that the tourism sector has collected about $157 million (14%) in business and leisure flights alone during January and September 2021 as a result of the relaxation of covid-19 prevention measures.

During a press conference on the 'current status of covid-19 and the emergence of the new variant', CTA Executive Director Eduardo Sengo revealed that in the pre-pandemic period, in 2019, the flow of travel was estimated at $350 million, but the pandemic set everything back. By 2020, that figure was down to $180 million, and for the CTA, these numbers represented encouraging results given the context of restrictions. The most encouraging recovery was experienced in the three quarters of this year, from January to September.

"[In 2021] there was a growth of 14%, that is $157 million of travel flow, inbound and outbound, versus $130 million in 2020," so "looking at the 2020 results and with one more quarter to go to close the year 2021, without a doubt this year we would exceed $180 million" clarified the CTA CEO, calculating that if the measures are not changed "the entire differential will be lost."

The CTA points the finger at the West for the measures it considers hasty to contain the new variant, as they have undermined the progress that tourism was making.

"We were already coming to 60% at the time before the covid. But now that most of the airlines have canceled flights to Mozambique, people don't even need to cancel, that is, the cancellations are automatic," said Mommad Abdullah, Chairman of the CTA's Tourism, Hotels and Restaurants Department.

Abdullah also said that the countries that restricted flights to and from Mozambique are among the ten countries that contribute most in Foreign Direct Investment and commercial partnerships in Mozambique, and this "affects all that projection that we had made and the projects underway. Everything is compromised.

Thus, the CTA predicts that massive layoffs will occur again due to the resurgence of restrictions, now driven by the omicron variant. Thus, "this is dependent on further updates on the new variant."

"We estimate that by August of last year we had lost about 90,000 jobs, but by December we had recovered about 50,000 jobs, and we were left with a balance of 40,000," said Eduardo Sengo.

According to the national private sector representative, the vaccination process for workers in the tourism sector and their households did not directly impact the return to their jobs; on the contrary, it was the easing of restrictions that contributed to the return to jobs.

Despite this, once again the class of workers in the tourism sector recorded casualties due to the tightening of the first and second quarter of 2021.

However "in that respect, in the last few months we have seen improvements, and [from then on] our estimates indicated about 15,000 [recovered workers]," he said.