The Determinants of Private Sector Performance in Mozambique: A Case Study of Small and Medium Scale Tourism Firms

Mozambique has been one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, since the mid 1990s. One of the major contributors for this growth is the tourism sector, thanks to its natural comparative advantage:  a long cost with yet unexploited natural assets. In fact since the end of the civil war, the sector has improved markedly in line with the general trend of the rest of the economy. From 1995 to  2007 the total investment in the sector amounted to 1.8 billion US$, almost 14% of the same period authorized projects. Just in 2006 alone close US$ 200 million was invested and the physical hotel  capacity is reported to have grown by more than 50% in the last 8 years.