VOA Visa Upon Arrival to Mozambique Remains $50 While Other Visas Double in Cost

Tunelga Manjate, owner/manager of popular Mozambican Tour Operator, Tours Maputo ( http://www.toursmaputo.com ) lamented the decision. "We have seen a steady increase in visitors since last year's announcement that cleared up the question of international tourists being able to apply for tourist visas upon arrival at a reasonable $50, but this latest decision sets us back again. What is worse is almost daily I speak to international guests who say that they receive conflicting information from Mozambican Embassies and Consulates. There is so much talk about tourism be one of the four pillars of our country's development but we keep on confusing our potential visitors and many of them give up and go to more welcoming and organised countries like Tanzania and South Africa."

Tourism chat groups have lit up over the last 24 hours with many lodge-owners and Mozambique Tourism investors complaining that the industry is still too fragile to be scaring visitors away, and adding more costs to businesses that are already facing great financial pressure. Residence Permits, required by foreign investors working in Mozambique, have almost doubled in price with the one-year "DIRE" (Resident's permit) now costing 33,760 MZN per year, equivalent to over $500 USD.