Increasing employability in the emerging tourism sector in Mozambique: Results of a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Mozambique’s tourism sector could play a key role in the country’s socio-economic development, especially in the region of Cabo Delgado where the demand for tourist services is expected to increase. Nonetheless, several constraints (e.g. the lack of adequate training) are hindering the capacity of local people to take full advantage of this opportunity. Qualitative research has been performed in order to align vocational training programmes with the needs of the emerging tourism sector. Local and foreign key informants were interviewed in order to gain a better understanding of training needs and to gain insights into developing training programmes that can enhance local people’s employability. The main findings highlight the lack of symbolisation of tourism and its correlates from local communities. Therefore, rather than just delivering technical skills, training programmes should also promote a ‘culture of tourism’ and a more favourable attitude towards ‘working in the tourism sector’.

KEYWORDS:

• Mozambique
• emerging country
• tourism development
• sustainable tourism
• vocational training

1. Introduction

The Mozambican government has identified tourism as a key component of its development strategy. By 2020 the country aims to be the ‘most vibrant, dynamic and exotic’ destination in Africa, welcoming over four million visitors per year (República de Moçambique, 2004). A few studies concerning the tourism sector in Mozambique can be found in the literature. Most of them aim to assess the impact of tourism and its value at either the macroeconomic or microeconomic level (e.g. FIAS & OECD Development Centre, 2006; Fortanier & Van Wijk, 2010; Jones, 2010; Sharma & Christie, 2010). Fewer studies specifically focus on tourism development (e.g. Kiambo, 2005; Spenceley, 2006; Rosendo et al., 2011; Tibiriçá et al., 2011; Bhatasara et al., 2013). Such studies differ in terms of topics of research (post-war reconstruction, marine protected area, diving tourism, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park), research technique (interview, focus group, questionnaire, participatory observation, document review) and research participants (key informants, local communities, tourists). To our knowledge, however, there is a lack of literature concerning tourism development in Cabo Delgado Province, which is the northernmost province of Mozambique. For this reason, there is an urgent need to investigate the opportunities for tourism development in this specific area as well, which has its own peculiarities in comparison with the rest of the country.

Tourism development is currently the most promising opportunity for economic, social and cultural development for local people in Cabo Delgado (PARP, 2011–14). The capital of the Province, Pemba, is the main jumping-off point for tourism in the PNQ (Quirimbas National Park), and the demand for lodging, restaurants and other tourist services is expected to increase significantly in coming years, also to meet the requests of the consistent workforce linked to the gas industry (Republic of Mozambique, 2009). Nevertheless, as underlined by the Tourism Development Plan for the Parque Nacional das Quirimbas (PEDTEM, 2009), several constraints are hindering the capacity of local people to take full advantage of this opportunity. In terms of socio-economic development, local investors and managers, due to their lack of appropriate education and skills, are still playing a marginal role in the development of tourism enterprises that remain mainly in the hands of foreign investors. The local communities, if employed, are relegated to low-paid and very marginal jobs by the hotels’ operators, who rely on the more educated personnel coming from Pemba town, southern Mozambique or even from outside the country. The disadvantaged and most vulnerable classes (women and young people) are almost totally excluded from this market (PEDTEM, 2009).

Hence, to help local communities take full advantage of the tourism opportunity in Cabo Delgado Province, there is an urgent need, on the one hand, to adequately train people who are available on the labour market (both local entrepreneurs/managers and employees) and, on the other, to apply the sustainability principle to the tourism industry and help it become well rooted among local people at all levels. The present article therefore aims to fill the existing literature gap and ensure that local communities are the primary beneficiaries of tourism in their areas, by conducting a research study that is able to provide information and insights into training local people and developing their tourism sector skills.

The present research operates within the framework provided by the project ‘Profissão Turismo – Vocational Training and Educational Programs to Increase Employability in the Hotel and Tourism Sector in Cabo Delgado Province’ (Reference: EuropeAid/131572/L/ACT/MZ), funded by the European Commission. According to the Project Document, its general objectives are: to align vocational training for local people with the needs of the emerging tourism sector; to contribute to reduce the gender and vulnerable group disparities in access to education; and to promote environmental, economic and social sustainability in tourism. More specifically, the main objective is to improve the local people’s employability by increasing the quality and opportunities for public and private vocational training in both formal and informal sectors in order to respond to the growing and demanding request of the labour market of the tourism sector. In order to achieve this, the main weaknesses of the formal and informal education systems in the tourism sector need to be addressed, especially training of trainers/professors, revision of curricula, production/improvement of training material and creation of new Technical and Vocational Education and Training offers. When dealing with the tourism labour chain, skilled staff are critical at all levels. This implies that even jobs which are commonly labelled as ‘low-skilled’, such as cleaning and waiting, require high personal service standards that are even more difficult to meet in the least developed countries, especially if there is a gap between foreign standards and local customs (Fortanier & Van Wijk, 2010).

Keeping this in mind, a preliminary challenge to tackle in achieving the project objectives is to detect the prior needs of the tourism sector and better align the programme of the courses to the requirements of the labour market in Cabo Delgado Province. The present article will specifically illustrate the main results from a qualitative social research study that allowed for gathering insightful information in order to better align such vocational and educational training programmes according to the needs and expectations of different stakeholders and key informants operating in the tourism industry.

The next sections will give an account of the methodological aspects of the social research and will illustrate the main results. Before this, a brief introduction to Mozambique’s socio-economic background and sustainable tourism is provided.

1.1. Mozambique’s socio-economic background and tourism development

Only two years after gaining independence from Portugal, Mozambique was shaken by a civil war that lasted 15 years (1977–92). Prior to independence in 1975, Mozambique attracted numerous visitors from across southern Africa and Europe, thanks to around 2500 km of Indian Ocean coastline, impressive game parks and historical sites from the long history of Portuguese settlement (Jones, 2010). Predictably, after independence and the start of the civil war, the economy collapsed and the tourism sector went into dramatic decline.

Since the end of the conflict in 1992, Mozambique has achieved impressive peace and stability (Arndt et al., 2007), and economic growth has been robust and among the fastest in Africa; the average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate was above 7% between 1994 and 2010 (World Bank, 2012). Although there has been significant economic success over the last two decades, such growth has been accompanied by growing inequality, and the majority of Mozambique’s population still lives in poverty (Virtanen, 2015). In terms of employment, the majority of the economically active population is employed in the agriculture sector, while the economic growth resulted mainly from large capital-intensive projects with only marginal contribution to employment. The percentage of the population living below the national poverty lines fell from 69% in 1996 to 54% in 2003 as rural life normalised but subsequently stagnated (Eronen et al., 2007; World Bank, 2012). The economic contribution of the tourism sector has been relatively low (2.9% of total GDP) and has supported only 2.2% of total employment (WTTC, 2015). In terms of cross-country tourism competitiveness, the World Economic Forum (WEF, 2015) ranks Mozambique 130th out of 141 countries, falling behind some relevant peers such as Tanzania (93rd) and Zambia (107th), despite Mozambique’s coastline having some of the finest beaches in the world (e.g. the archipelagos of Quirimbas) and a rich marine and coral environment on the Indian Ocean suitable for diving, as well as wildlife reserves in the interior (six transfrontier conservation areas) (Sharma & Christie, 2010). Given these features, there appears to be great potential for substantial renewal and growth of the tourism sector.

Investment in tourism (e.g. accommodations and other infrastructures) could potentially have a high impact on employment and knowledge transfer opportunities, and hence on poverty reduction. This is especially true for Cabo Delgado Province. The level of poverty is high compared with the overall national level and the province scores low on social indicators, but the natural resource base of the region and the potential for growth in the province are promising (Isaksen & Mate, 2005).

For all of these reasons, developing adequate vocational training and educational programmes that could increase local people’s employability is of paramount importance in reducing poverty and inequality. A qualitative study could provide the necessary information to better align such programmes with the needs of the emerging tourism sector.

1.2. Sustainable development and sustainable tourism

As an agent of post-modernity, tourism has become part of the ‘development’ agenda (Baptista, 2011), and Mozambique is just one of many emerging countries that are embracing tourism as an engine for economic development (for a review of tourism in Africa and its position in the global tourism economy, see Rogerson, 2007).

Just like any other economic activity, tourism involves the interaction of people, goods and services with the environment. As such, the development of tourism can lead to considerable socio-cultural, economic and environmental problems (Ajagunna, 2014). Given this premise, one should ask whether and in what conditions such economic development could be regarded as ‘sustainable’. It has been pointed out that the most striking characteristic of the term ‘sustainable development’ is that it means so many different things to so many different people and organisations (Robinson, 2004).

Considering three different pillars – the social, ecological and economic dimensions – Neto (2003) stressed that there needs to be more focus on social aspects. It is primarily the social dimension of sustainability in the form of local employment that can become an important factor in the ‘war on poverty’ (Fortanier & van Wijk, 2010). Since the late 1990s, the concept of pro-poor tourism has emerged as a way to increase the net benefits to the poor from tourism and to ensure that tourism growth contributes to poverty reduction (Ashley et al., 2001). Being labour intensive, tourism can generate employment for many people (for a review of the ways pro-poor tourism can contribute to poverty alleviation and its criticisms, see Truong et al., 2014). While sometimes the focus is merely on ecological aspects, the use of tourism to alleviate poverty should become an integral factor in sustainable tourism (Ashley & Maxwell, 2001). In fact, without significant community involvement, tourism development goals may be counterproductive (Rosendo et al., 2011). Nonetheless, it is still difficult for local communities to take advantage of tourism opportunities. Local people may view tourists as a nuisance, intruding upon their daily lives and privacy. Some tourists may even despise locals, especially when hotel owners are rich and foreign and the employees are poor and local (Fan & Jiang, 1996).

Rogerson (2002) stated that the one of the key principles of successful tourism-led local economic development is bringing tangible benefits to poor communities and committing to pro-poor tourism policies. He also stated that ‘economic development cannot be divorced from environmental, and particularly, social development. As well as job creation, enterprise development and environmental management, there is a need for stable communities, a well-trained and educated workforce, safe environments and a healthy population’ (Rogerson, 2002:113). Therefore, tourism development is constantly being measured in terms of its ability to attain a range of not only economic but also social transformation objectives, such as its ability to create employment and promote greater race and gender equality (Visser & Rogerson, 2004).

Spenceley (2008), rather than assuming that perceptions of sustainability are uniform globally, identified the main factors within the literature relevant to southern African stakeholders in order to gain a picture of what sustainable tourism means to them. His results support the importance of using local knowledge and participation by local people in tourism and conservation. As suggested by Truong et al. (2014), for tourism to make a greater contribution to poverty alleviation, local poor people need to be included in decision-making processes, development planning and project design and implementation. One theory that is salient in the tourism literature which could help to understand the importance of local participation in sustainable tourism is the social exchange theory, whose roots can be traced back to at least the 1920s (for an interdisciplinary review, see Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005). Although different views of social exchange have emerged, theorists agree that social exchange involves a series of interactions that generate obligations (Emerson, 1976) in a process of negotiated exchanges where all the parties involved have some give and take. As illustrated by Kaynak & Marandu (2011), in the context of tourism, for sustainable tourism to occur in a community, certain exchanges must take place. Local residents or entrepreneurs attract tourists to their community because of their desire to improve their economic and social conditions (e.g. by obtaining employment). However, in order to obtain these benefits, they will have to reciprocate (e.g. by participating in the planning and development of tourist attractions, extending their friendliness, courtesy and hospitality to tourists, and tolerating inconveniences caused by tourism). If the benefits and costs that come from tourism are not equally shared by the parties (e.g. all of the benefits to foreign entrepreneurs and all of the costs to local communities), sustainable tourism can hardly be achieved.

To summarise, the tourism industry can potentially make a strong contribution to socio-economic development, particularly by generating jobs, including employment for women and marginalised groups (De Kadt, 1979; Görg, 2000; ILO, 2001; Cukier, 2002). The collective income from tourism and related activities can benefit communities and significantly reduce local poverty (Ashley & Roe, 2002; Rogerson, 2010).

Again, for vocational training programmes to be effective in increasing local people’s employability in the tourism sector, as well as virtually enabling sustainable tourism, they need to fit local needs. If those who complete the vocational training programmes do not meet such expectations, they might not benefit from tourism development because their potential employers will look still for more educated and skilled personnel coming from abroad. A qualitative social research study could ‘give voice’ to such needs and expectations, thus increasing the chance to promote a tourism that is really ‘sustainable’ in terms of poverty alleviation and quality of life enhancement.

2. The study objective and methodology

Because the objective of this empirical study was to provide support to the development of Technical and Vocational Education and Training programmes to be implemented in Cabo Delgado Province, social research has been conducted in order to align such programmes with the requirements of the tourism labour market in the province. The social research was composed of both qualitative and quantitative phases – the former on people operating in the tourism sector, the latter to verify the interest of local communities in improving their employment opportunities in the tourism sector. The present article will illustrate only the results from the qualitative study, which is a necessary preliminary step to collecting information about training needs and expectations in the tourism sector.

Qualitative research appeared to be the most adequate approach, given the high practicality of the final aim (delivering training programmes), which requires a prior understanding of training needs. Given the lack of previous research, the complexity of the phenomenon and the necessity of deeply exploring the core concerns of operators in the tourism field, qualitative methodology appeared the best way to learn how a variety of stakeholders experience the phenomenon and the meaning they assign to it (Morse & Richards, 2002). The research results are expected to bring highly tailored and context-based training contents.

Between March and May 2013, 34 in-depth interviews were conducted with local and foreign stakeholders and key informants operating at different levels in the tourism/hospitality field. Interviews were undertaken until a saturation point was reached; that is, when the responses to the interview questions became relatively homogeneous. The interviews were conducted face to face, via telephone or via Skype. The sample included a broad and diverse range of respondents and was divided into two main groups, as presented in Table 1. The first group was homogeneous and composed of tour operators working at the international level. The second group was more heterogeneous and included both local and foreign stakeholders¹ operating at the local level in order to reflect the multiple stakeholders operating in the tourism sector.

Table 1. Sample composition.

Typology of stakeholder	Number
Operating at international level	14
Operating at local level	20
Total	34

A content analysis was used to analyse the data (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). Such an approach is generally used with a design whose aim is to describe a phenomenon, and it is usually appropriate when existing theory or research literature is limited, as in this case. Researchers avoid using preconceived categories (Kondracki & Wellman, 2002), instead allowing the categories and names of the categories to flow from the data. The main advantage of this approach is gaining direct information from participants without imposing preconceived categories.

3. Results

This section will show the main findings from the qualitative study. The results will be divided into two different sub-sections. The first will present some useful insights that allow for a better understanding of the tourism sector in Cabo Delgado and will lay the foundations for introducing the second sub-section, which will more specifically focus on the training needs/expectations (to better align the vocational training programmes). Finally, a third sub-section will provide some operative hints and suggestions concerning both the development and the delivery of such training programmes.

3.1. Understanding ‘tourism’ in Cabo Delgado

In order to better understand the main findings of the research, two key results are of paramount importance and need to be kept in mind: the existence of a cultural gap between (local and foreign) employers and (local) workforce; and the meaning attributed to ‘tourism’ by members of local communities.

First of all, employers/managers operating in the tourism sector (mainly foreigners but also local) perceive the Mozambican workforce as present-oriented and uninterested in what they do for a living as long as they can make ends meet:

Especially in Ibo, they have a fisherman mentality. You fish when you are hungry. When the fish’s gone, you go fishing again. That is why there are no vegetables in Ibo, as watering plants takes more planning and discipline. (Local stakeholder)

Therefore, they also believe that the Mozambican people are neither interested in their work nor in improving their life conditions. Work is just a means to an end, and is not worth any real effort:

They are drunk during work. (Local stakeholder)

They don’t think about tomorrow. (Local stakeholder)

They just work for the salary. (Local stakeholder)

They are not interested in the restaurant’s functioning, so they don’t show up at work for long periods. (Local stakeholder)

Additionally, there appears to be a cultural gap between employers and their potential employees, at least according to the key informants who were interviewed. We do realise that our participants’ verbalisations are quite strong and convey racial discrimination and prejudice. However, because they were so widespread and strongly supported by most key informants, one could suggest that such statements, rather than stating facts, instead convey social representations that are widely shared by our stakeholders.

The second aspect concerns the meaning of ‘tourism’ to the local people. According to our participants, tourism is not symbolised by the Mozambican people at two different levels, semantic and etymological.

At the semantic level, they do not know exactly what ‘tourism’ means and, consequently, what ‘working for tourism’ means. It is difficult for them to understand why someone should decide to come from abroad to visit their region. When it happens, they are more inclined to believe that tourists are there for business or that they have a secret agenda. It is difficult for local community members to understand that foreigners might be there for leisure and to enjoy the beauty of their natural landscapes:

Locals are not aware of the value of this area. (International stakeholder)

They need an explanation of what tourism is, who tourists are and why they come to visit Mozambique. (International stakeholder)

At the etymological level, instead, Mozambican people have difficulties keeping together tourism and other existing infrastructures (services, accommodation, agencies, etc.). In fact, in ancient Greek the word ‘symbol’ (syn-ballein) means ‘keeping together’. Moreover, there is a lack of promotion and communication regarding tourism from both local institutions and government, and there is no shared plan for tourism development:

Everyone follows their own lead; there is no common effort. (International stakeholder)

According to the aforementioned results, there is a strong need to develop a ‘tourism culture’. Therefore, rather than just delivering technical skills and practical competence, training programmes should also promote a more favourable attitude towards ‘tourism’ and ‘working in the tourism sector’.

3.2. Understanding the training needs

According to the interviewees, the Cabo Delgado educational system as it is appears to be inadequate. Teachers are not perceived as adequately prepared, and students do not meet their future employers’ expectations, lacking those skills that local operators consider to be priorities when hiring:

Teachers lack skills and are corrupt. (Local stakeholder)

However, because employers do not have time to train local people, they still prefer hiring skilled foreigners, even if they cost more in terms of covering food and accommodations:

Training local people is highly time consuming. (Local stakeholder)

The lack of local trained workers refers to any level – low-educated local people who lack basic skills that are essential to be employed in touristic structures; tourism managers and local operators; university students interested in a degree in tourism; and young businessmen/entrepreneurs:

Those who already are in the business are bad. Even if at the moment they are the best, they are still very bad. (International stakeholder)

Local people are not trained to work in a senior or managerial position. (International stakeholder)

3.3. Developing vocational training and educational programmes

Operatively, when planning for tourism training, the characteristics of the local workforce need to be taken into account. Apart from the practical contents that each programme needs to provide (e.g. room service, barman, tourism guide, etc.), each training programme should also deliver some general content on tourism to lay a solid basis and subsequently build up technical skills, so that employers could then hire them. Given the aforementioned main results, local trainees need to gain a better understanding of what tourism is, and specifically what benefits tourism can bring to the whole community:

More tourists mean that the employer can pay you more. (Local stakeholder)

The programmes should promote ‘working’ as a value and make them become more acquainted with western social practices:

They do not have any work ethics. (Local stakeholder)

They lack enthusiasm, and they do not smile. Their welcoming skills could be improved. (Local stakeholders)

As regards technical and practical skills, by way of example Table 2 presents the main specific topics that need to be covered.

Regarding educational programmes aimed at training for managerial positions, some basic content needs to be covered, including: general notions about the legislation regarding the tourism sector (rules and regulations); basic marketing and public relations notions; and entrepreneurial and managerial skills:

They have low marketing skills, and they do not have an idea of what public relations is. (International stakeholder)

They need to learn how to manage and organize huge events such as exhibitions and fairs. (International stakeholder)

By way of example, Table 3 presents some more practical and technical content that the participants in the qualitative study considered necessary.

Table 2. Practical content of vocational training programmes for low-educated people.

Area	Topics
Housekeeping	Cleaning standards Room and bathroom cleaning Room tidying (how to make a bed)
Kitchen	How to cook international/local dishes Cleaning standards Basic cooking principles (how to cut vegetables/meat)
Restaurant service	How to dress up a table How to serve drinks (wine, etc.) How to take an order How to serve in a bar
Parks	Basics of animal and plant life Guide courses
Cross-area competence
Communication skills	Portuguese speaking English speaking Western good manners (smiling, saying thank you)
Literacy skills	Reading Writing Calculation
Work skills	Accountability Teamwork Work organisation (prioritising different activities)

Table 3. Practical content of educational programmes for managerial positions.

Area	Topics
Hotels and lodges	Reception and welcome skills Check-in and check-out
Kitchen	How to cook international/local dishes Waste management Gastronomy principles How to present dishes
Information and knowledge	Local history Local culture Touristic information about the area
Parks	Conservation of plants and animals and its economic value Rules and steps for creation and maintenance of a park
Hotels and lodges	Reception and welcome skills Check-in and check-out processes
Cross-area competence
Marketing and economics principles in tourism	Rules of tourism market Value and investments Types of tourism activities
Projects management	Project development Community project management People and resources management
Language skills	English Other languages such as French or German

In delivering the courses, especially those targeted at low-educated local people, the interviewees offered some hints and suggestions. In particular, courses are expected to be as concrete and adherent to reality as possible; they should also be based on practical experience:

Training must be as practical and concrete as possible. Most of them don’t even know what a stove or a sink is. (Local stakeholder)

They also need to be concrete and favour a link with the tourism industry by including an internship. It is important to make students fully aware of what they will able to do after attending the programmes, and how they could improve their life conditions:

The most important thing is not what you learn; it is what you can do with what you learn. (Local stakeholder)

Moreover, it is fundamental to make trainees understand they are part of a bigger picture:

Show people brochures on touristic destinations and explain that they are part of it. (Local stakeholder)

Finally, acknowledgement should be provided. Awarding a diploma/certificate at the end of each programme will work as an incentive to encourage participants to make some changes in their personal and professional development. Even establishing prizes for the best students will incentivise their participation and commitment.

4. Conclusions

The present study is relevant for at least two reasons. First, it shows the usefulness of performing qualitative research prior to the definition of training programmes. Second, the study makes important contributions to the development of tourism in Mozambique in general, and Cabo Delgado Province in particular.

From a methodological perspective, a qualitative research approach could provide useful insights for developing ad-hoc vocational training programmes. In the tourism literature, a substantial body of studies utilised qualitative approaches specifically for analysing the tourism market potential of a country and predicting future tourism market demand (Calantone et al., 1987; Green et al., 1990; Kaynak & Marandu 2006; Kaynak & Cavlek 2007; Kaynak & Rojas-Méndez, 2014), using techniques such as a jury of executive opinion, scenario-building and the Delphi forecasting technique (for a review of Delphi forecasting research in tourism, see Lin & Song, 2015). The present study instead adopted a qualitative approach to first perform an exploratory study in order to gain a better understanding of the tourism sector in Cabo Delgado, and to gather insights to develop vocational training programmes in line with the needs of such an emerging tourism sector. Education and training is a fundamental aspect of tourism development, because tourism depends to large extent on skilled and innovative human resources for delivering quality service (Cluster Consortium, 1999). However, for tourism development to also be ‘sustainable’ (especially from a social and human perspective), local communities need to be able to seize the opportunity to enhance their socio-economic conditions. Developing vocational training and educational programmes in line with the needs and expectations of their future employers will increase the chance of improving local people’s employability in the tourism sector, and hence to play an active role in tourism development.

From a pragmatic point of view, the results underline the importance of delivering a training programme based not only on the transfer of technical skills, but also aimed at developing a ‘tourism culture’ by changing local residents’ attitudes toward tourism and tourists. In fact, part of the reluctance of local and foreign employers to hire a local workforce is due to their perceived unfavourable work attitude (e.g. coming late for work, being ‘lazy’, being rude to tourists, etc.), which could be related to a failure to grasp the effective meaning of ‘tourism’ and the benefits that tourism could bring. Raising awareness of this matter and promoting a more favourable attitude and culture towards tourism and tourists is as important as transferring technical skills (e.g. learning how to work in a hotel/restaurants, learning English or other foreign languages, etc.).

The focus of this article is in line with the strategic guidelines developed by Mafunzwaini & Hugo (2005), who examined different strategies for development of rural tourism in Limpopo Province in South Africa. Among other results, their study underlines the importance of delivering education and training programmes to ensure quality service and increase the tourism skill base at different levels (both low-educated residents and local hospitality operators). According to them, education and training is one of the key elements of success in tourism development. The present study is novel in that we not only recognise the importance of delivering adequate education and training, but also believe it is of paramount importance to undertake qualitative research in order to align and fine-tune such vocational training and educational programmes with the needs of different stakeholders.

Future similar studies could also be performed in other emerging countries (first, but not exclusively, in sub-Saharan Africa). It would be interesting to examine to what extent the lack of symbolisation of tourism is context specific, or whether it is widespread across other emerging countries that are embracing tourism as an engine for economic development.

Regarding major limitations, the present study does not allow generalisation of its results. In other words, such results may not apply to the development of training programmes in other emerging countries or in other Mozambican provinces. Such a limitation, however, is strictly related to the methodological choice (qualitative technique).

Moreover, one could observe that the final recommendations provided in the present article do not take into account the local people’s voices (those who will participate in the vocational training and educational programmes). As aforementioned in the methodological section, the social research within the project ‘Profissão Turismo’ was also composed of a quantitative phase aimed to verify the interest of local communities in improving their employment opportunities in the tourism sector. The present article provided only the results of the qualitative study, which collected information about training needs and expectations in the tourism sector from various stakeholders and key informants, because they might be in a better position to reveal which skills are necessary to increase local communities’ employability in the tourism sector.

On the positive side, the present study contributes to the number of studies (which is still small) on tourism development in Mozambican territories. The qualitative approach and the diverse range of stakeholders – ranging from industry operators to tourism, parks and recreation, accommodation, restaurants and tourism educators – who were interviewed led to highly relevant context-based results, which allowed for better alignment of vocational training programmes with the needs of the emerging tourism sector.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding granted by the European Commission. They thank the local operators who helped to recruit participants for this study and assisted in the field.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

C Castiglioni http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7306-7079

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission under the project ‘Profissão turismo – Vocational Training and Educational Programs to Increase Employability in the Hotel and Tourism Sector in Cabo Delgado Province’ [Reference: EuropeAid/131572/L/ACT/MZ]; Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation – EuropeAid.

Notes

1 This group included six hotel/lodge/camping owners and/or managers, four tourism agencies, three tourism consultants, two restaurants owners/managers, two park managers, one hotel operator, one university professor and one secondary school teacher.