Kumsa Demboba
Ethiopia to become Chinese Tourism Destination
The Embassy
of China in Addis Ababa (and Xinhua) on August 22, 2016 stated that Ethiopia
and China have expressed their keen interest to cooperate on the development of
tourism sector and engage in various trading activities in the tourism sector
of Ethiopia. The Embassy said that both countries have agreed to explore ways
of collaboration between them and boost the tourism industry.
The Embassy said both countries will
jump at available strong-ties and opportunities used to attract more Chinese
tourists to Ethiopian tourist destinations and enhance cooperation in the sector
between the two countries. Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, La Yifan noted that
Ethiopia's rich natural and historical heritages coupled with the government's
huge expenditure in infrastructure is showcasing that the Ethiopia has
unparalleled interest to exploit its untapped tourism potentials for the purpose
of development and poverty reduction.
The Ambassador witnessed that Ethiopia's
landscape, wildlife, flora and fauna as well as its diverse cultures, and the
infrastructure being developed over the past two decades makes Ethiopia
potential country to boost its tourism sector and attract more visitors and
investors from China (as China has the largest number of outbound tourists that
reaches 120 million last year, making it the largest in outbound number of
tourists).
He stated that the Chinese could participate
in Ethiopia's tourism development both as tourists and investors to cooperate
with Ethiopians and jointly promote and develop the tourism industry. He said
he has learned that there is a growing interest from the Chinese business
sector to participate in the tourism sector development of Ethiopia.
Ethiopian State Minister of Culture
and Tourism, Tadelech Dalecho said on the occasion that China and Ethiopia are
countries with very strong and solid relationship. With a long-standing
diplomatic tie, the two countries are enjoying strong relations at the levels
of government to government, business to business, and also people to people
relation.
She said hospitality and tourism is
one of the sectors growing very fast in Ethiopia for the past few years.
Ethiopia has very unique tourism potential for leisure tourists, for business
as well as conference and various types of tourism purposes. She said she
believes that the Ethiopian business community and Chinese business people will
jointly undertake commendable activities in the tourism and hospitality sector.
Branding and Boosting
Tourist Destinations
Currently, the State Minister said, Ethiopia
has attached prime importance to transform the tourism sector and make it one
of the giant sectors that could contribute to the development of the country.
To this end, the country has made various packages and incentives readily
available to investors interested to engage in hotel and tourism sector. The
investment policy is also very encouraging for foreign direct investment and
tourism-related business activities.
In a bid to
expand tourist destinations in Ethiopia, while inaugurating ‘’Land of Origins’’ as the
new brand of national tourism, Prime Minister Haile-Mariam Dessalegn had stated
that the government has planned to build new airport adjoining the Grand
Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD. He said the construction has aimed at
investing in the modernization and expansion of major airports in the country as
well as providing world-class services for business and leisure travelers.
He said
construction will soon begin eying at making the GERD as one of the tourist
destinations in Ethiopia, increasing the number of tourist arrivals and
boosting their expenditure through the provision of high-end facilities (that
satisfy their comfort and sightseeing). According to him, nation awaits
formidable task to promote its image at international level and obtain its
share of income from the global tourism industry. He stressed that the GERD
will serve as one ingenious mechanism of branding national image.
It had
been said that Ethiopia had lately replaced its tourism motto, ‘’Thirteen
Months’ Sun Shine’’ with a new brand ‘’Land of Origins’’. The old motto had
served for over half a century. The new tourism catchphrase is anticipated to comprehensively
showcase the country’s current feature and promote Ethiopia’s untapped tourism
potential.
Ethiopian
Tourism Organization (ETO) said that the new brand has been developed after
conducting extensive research and consultation in collaboration with
stakeholders, tour operators and potential tourists in source markets. The new
brand will serve as the basis of crafting
messages; truly showing the world Ethiopia’s being ‘’Land of Origins‘’
and inviting tourists to take time to be enchanted by Ethiopia’s extraordinary
past, dynamic present, culture, history and heritage.
To help
promote tourism in reinvigorated spirit, the new brand is being disseminated
across the country including hotels, lodge and service areas of Ethiopian Airlines,
which is national flag carrier. The new image is
represented by a tree painted with the nations brand color: green, yellow and
red encircled with blue (emblazoning the phrase); the roots, depicted by the
national flag represent the history, the people, the land and the origins of
the nation; the trunk stands for unity and strength of the nation; the branch
and its leaves showcasing abundance and future prosperity of the country.
There
are numerous tangible facts that witness Ethiopia as Land of Origins. However,
in spite of its immense potential,
people do not know about Ethiopia’s original and bountiful contribution to the
world. According to CEO of the ETO, Dr. Solomon Tadesse, Ethiopia is the land
on which human beings walked upright for the first time; the land that brought
a gift to the entire world including coffee. It is also the melting pot of
Africa and the cradle of mankind as proved by the fossils of Salam and Lucy (exhumed
in Afar) and the source of the Blue Nile, which is the genesis of one of the
greatest river-valley civilizations.
He
said nation also boasts of landscapes of stunning beauty and dramatic contrasts
from the high pinnacles of the Simien Mountains-the Roof of Africa-to the
plummeting depths of the Danakil Depression, the lowest-and hottest place on
earth. It has also embodied vast forests such as those in the Kafa Biosphere
Reserve - the home of many wild coffee varieties, active volcanoes, hot
springs, cool underground caverns, rugged gorges, spectacular waterfalls,
rivers and shimmering lakes including Lake Tana, which is the source of the
life-nurturing Blue Nile.
It is to
be reminisced that European
Council on Tourism had granted that
last year’s accolade of World Best Tourism Destination to Ethiopia. The country
had been praised for its outstanding natural beauty, spectacular landscapes and
ancient culture that rivet the European Council on Tourism and Trade to select
it out of 31 countries as the year’s top holiday spot.
Enhancing Infrastructures and number
of Tourists Eyeing at GDP-2
The
number of visitors in the country had increased by 10 percent over the last
decade, according to the Ethiopian Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The year
had seen influx of more than 600,000 tourists that were attracted by fertile
national parks, over 3,000 year-old archeological history and nine UNESCO world
heritage sites. According to the World Bank, tourism contributed an estimated
4.5% to the country's GDP last year, generating nearly a million jobs and over
two billion dollars in revenue.
Similarly, nation has
attracted over 910,000 tourists in 2015/16 fiscal year and obtained 3.4 billion
USD. Taking in to account its immense tourism potential, the country is
expected to benefit from increased arrivals of visitors in the Second GTP, in
which Ethiopia has targeted to attract over 2 million tourists every year and
enhance the amount of revenue of the sector to cover at least five percent of
the GDP.
Growing number of
tourists are getting interested in the country’s exotic, off-beat and far-flung
destinations. They consider Ethiopia as exhilarating holiday destination due to
its magnificent scenery and cultural heritage, which will continue to make the
country mesmerizing destination.
To this end, Ethiopia’s tourism
development policies and programs have been formulated in a far-sighted manner
targeting at changing the image of the country, increasing foreign exchange
earnings and reducing poverty meaningfully, through sustainable tourism
development. Mainly, in the GTP-2, nation will focus on many predominant areas
such as human resource and infrastructure development, strengthening IT-related
capacity, management and service delivery.
Cognizant of its vast and untapped tourism potential, Ethiopia
has started to take tailored measures designed to preserve and develop tourist
sites across the country. For instance, it is upgrading tourist infrastructures
in various national parks. It is also renovating roads linking parks with major
trunk roads and lodges. Other activities being undertaken by the government
include protection of wild animals from illegal hunters and poachers in sanctuaries
and parks, as well as conservation of heritage sites.
Despite
tremendous endeavor to develop revenue generation capacity of the tourism
industry, a study related to economic growth and tourism sector development in
Ethiopia indicated that shortage of skilled human power, poor infrastructure,
unskilled marketing, weak financial system and inadequate institutional support
are palpable obstacles of tourism.
Mainly, the sector has been challenged by weak
implementation capacity and lack of competence of high and
medium-level trained human power, operation system and institutional capacity. Similarly, the industry is said to be
throttled by numerous shortcomings including lack of quality service near
tourist sites; unskilled management and inadequate promotion of attractions and
lack of ample finance and know-how to preserve historical, man-made and natural
attractions.
In view of fathomless problems,
nation awaits tremendous tasks to improve the condition of facilities and build
the capacity of human power employed in the tourism sector. It is also
encumbered with huge task to make sure that destinations are supplied with
high-end facilities; the sector has be thoroughly overhauled before publicizing
tourist destinations and available services.
Determined to alleviate these
problems, the Minister of Culture and Tourism said that nation has started to
undertake far-reaching measures. In line with this, five years’ tourism
development plan had incorporated human resources development and improvement
of information and management capacity. In addition, improvements of services,
development of infrastructure and promotion of domestic tourism have been taken
as priority areas.
Similarly,
the key generic tools designed to translate plans into actions include formulation
and implementation of well developed sector strategies; strong public
investment program; public-private partnerships; strong community involvement
and application of reliable and timely information.
As a leap
forward, currently nation is encouraging investors to build hotels and lodges
around destinations. To this end, the government has made readily available a
variety of packages and incentives used to attract investors interested to
invest in the sector. The incentives include permission to import tax-free
capital goods as well as various grants and loans.
In this
regard, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said it is striving to boost the
awareness of people about the advantages of tourism. It said citizens are
responsible for the success of tourism by welcoming tourists; making sure that
tourists are taken care of and protecting attractions. Particularly,
the private sector should be further encouraged to engage in the building and
expanding of tourist facilities of appropriate standards at each tourist
destination. This effort should also take into consideration the high-end
facility demand of tourists for accommodation, food, entertainment services,
etc.
Currently,
sizable changes are being registered in the areas of facility construction and
the number of tourists coming to Ethiopia has started to herald nation’s
economic transformation through tourism. Ethiopia is keen on achieving
significant breakthrough in tourism. However, concerted effort of all
stakeholders is needed to achieve this leap forward transformation in the GTP-2;
it has to go a long way to develop tourism to the desirable level and make it
one of the reliable contributors to the national economy.
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