Revenue collected by the hotel and tourism sector in Angola in the third quarter of 2019 fell to 9 billion kwanzas (US$18.5 million), a real drop of 3 billion kwanzas or 25%, said the director of the office of statistical planning studies of the Ministry of Tourism.

Mário Jacob Santos, speaking to the Angop news agency on the side-lines of an end-of-year ceremony, also said he predicted that the country’s tourism revenue in 2020 would account for approximately 0.8% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

In the last four years, he said, the development of the tourism sector had been affected by the deceleration of the economy on an international level, which resulted in economic contraction, an exponential rise in inflation, deterioration of fiscal indicators and a significant reduction of net international reserves.

This situation, he said, meant that the goals for the sector set out in the National Development Plan (2013/2017) were not achieved, but it is expected that in 2020 this scenario will change, considering that the growth forecast for the economy as a whole is 5.8%.

The number of tourists arriving in Angola has slowed significantly due to the financial and economic crisis that the country has been experiencing since 2014, and the average number recorded over the last three years was 215,000, which compares with a target of 512,000 tourists per year set out in the National Development Plan. (macauhub)