MAPUTO, 3 June 2008 (IRIN) – Time is one of the few commodities that duty manager Susana Diniz, 28, does not have much of as she attends to a stream of guests booking into the 158-room Holiday Inn hotel in Mozambique‘s capital, Maputo. 

“We have been fully booked for the last few weeks, thanks to the international guests attending some conferences taking place here,” Diniz told IRIN. She recently returned home after a seven-year stint in the hospitality industry in Brazil, where she obtained a hotel management degree.

Mozambique’s renaissance after a decades-long civil war ended in 1992 – which killed about one million people, created at least a million refugees and displaced several million more internally – has been rapid. 

At times the peace dividend has seen the country record double-digit growth of up to 14.7 percent and, in spite of devastating floods in 2000, it still averages about eight percent. Diniz is part of the post-conflict generation, born into war, but young enough to enjoy the fruits of peace. 

“More than 75 percent of our rooms have been taken up by international guests coming for the conferences at the Joachim Chissano International Conference Centre, but we also have to keep space for some of our regulars as well. Business has been very high, and it is the same for most hotels here,” Diniz said.

The month of May, the onset of the dry season, also marks the beginning of the conference season and the city’s 11 high-grade hotels are fully booked to host three major international events during the month. 

”More than 75 percent of our rooms have been taken up by international guests coming for conferences”

Tourism is Mozambique’s third largest contributor to the gross domestic product (GDP), raking in US$167 million in 2007. More than 3,000 international guests arrived to attend the World Press Freedom Day celebrations, the week-long 2008 Biennale on Education in Africa, and the annual meeting of the African Development Bank (ADB).