-Finalizes to launch first Tourism Satellite Account
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia and other members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) would officially launch a regional sustainable tourism master plan in Addis Ababa soon, Ministry of Tourism announced.
Tourism State Minister Sileshi Girma told journalists yesterday that the IGAD member states would inaugurate the Sustainable Tourism Master Plan (STMP), a 10-year road map designed to ensure steady tourism development at regional level, on 19 September 2024 in Addis during an event that will be organized by the Ethiopian Ministry of Tourism, IGAD Secretariat and the Economic Commissions for Africa (ECA).
He said the master plan provides IGAD member states with an integrated regional framework with a view to optimizing the contribution of the tourism sector to socio-economic development, identifying strategic areas of cooperation in tourism development among the IGAD member states, and facilitating the creation of appropriate strategies and that enhance the competitiveness of individual IGAD member states in promoting regional integration.
“Stipulating a number of regional, continental and global socio-economic development frameworks, the IGAD’s STMP 2024-2034 provides a tourism development framework that aims to make the region an integrated, globally competitive and sustainable tourism destination.”
The first IGAD’s STMP (2013-2023) was developed with similar goal providing priority areas and implementation framework without forwarding efficient coordination mechanism for implementation. He said unlike the previous, the current one focuses on opportunities and challenges that demand an integrated action of each member state providing appropriate coordination mechanism needed across each priority areas.
On the other hand, Sileshi said that Ethiopia would establish the first Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), which will be launched today at Adwa Victory Memorial.
“The need for establishment of the TSA is that the country lacks a robust statistical framework for accurately measuring and analyzing the sector’s economic contributions” he said, adding “this data gap limits the country’s ability to fully capitalize on tourism’s benefits and optimize its economic impact.”
Currently, as to the state minister, the available statistical information on Ethiopia’s tourism sector is limited as it is relying mainly on international tourist arrivals and visitor exit surveys.
Therefore, he said, the establishment of TSA aimed at utilizing the full economic potential of the country’s tourism sector and will offer insights into the direct contribution of tourism to GDP, job creation and investment, the impact of international tourism on the balance of payments, and government revenue from tourism activities.
He said Ethiopia is privileged to host the IGAD level Origins Travel Mart, and the vision is to widen the scope of the Origins Travel Mart to a continental and global levels. It aims to make Ethiopia the host for the Origins Travel Mart and invite the whole world to deal travel and tourism business in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia has seen the inscription of its three historical heritages under the UNESCO’s world heritage list during the year 2024.
BY MISGANAW ASNAKE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2024
