Since the past few years, the tourism sector has received due attention by the Ethiopian government to generate a tangible income and create numerous job opportunities for youths and women. To realize this objective, thus, various initiatives have been devised to advance the sector. Accordingly, massive tourism attractions development activities have been undertaken at national level. In the past few years, the renovation of the existing tourist sites and the development of the new ones have been carried out aggressively to enhance the contribution of the sector to national development.
As part of this effort, and to practically measure the contribution of the tourism sector to nation’s GDP and understand its future potential to the economy through organizing tourism-related data across the country, this week, the Ministry of Tourism launched a new Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), on Tuesday September 17, 2024.
During the launching ceremony, Tourism Minister, Ambassador Nasise Chali stated that the TSA, as a scientific tool, provides tourists with organized information to get better services in various destinations.
“It is a testimony to our journey and vital to quantify the tourism and ensure sustainable development and sound strategy that transform Ethiopian tourism toward the future.”
TSA can solve the lack of organized information in tourism so that the sector provides smooth services and comprehensive information thereby contributing quantifiable share to the national economy, she mentioned.
The Minister further elaborated that the satellite account helps to utilize the economic potential of the tourism sector for GDP contribution, job creation and investment attraction by providing crucial data for evidence based policy formulation, decision-making, and strategic planning.
“Ethiopia is rich in historical, natural and cultural resources with several tourism destinations but has not been able to obtain the benefit it deserves for underdeveloped infrastructures and other limitations.”
However, these days, according to Nasise, the government is paying great attention to modernize the tourism sector in order to increasing foreign exchanges it generates to the national economy.
UNECA Representative, Gefari Magnara (PhD) on his part said that launching TSA is a major milestone for Ethiopia as it helps to unlock tourism potentials for enabling stakeholders to have a current understanding of the sector.
Projections for the next 5 to 10 years suggest that with continued investment, Ethiopia’s tourism sector could surpass pre-pandemic levels by the late 2020s. Initiatives focusing on enhancing infrastructure, improving security, and developing new tourism products like ecotourism, will be key drivers of growth, as to him.
It is anticipated that tourism sector could contribute over 5 billion USD annually to GDP by 2030 with international tourist arrivals exceeding 2 million visitors, he indicated.
“We need to optimize tourism contribution to national development goals like the creation of jobs and attraction of investments.”
The Representative believed that TSA has also a broader positive effect on other sectors such as agriculture and construction and also promotes inclusive development.
“UNECA will continue supporting Ethiopia and this financial foundation, stronger and more resilience to tourism industry to the benefit of all Ethiopians,” he expressed.
“Looking ahead, the future is promising, but it will require sustained effort and strategic planning,” he said.
Accordingly, the tourism is an economic sector that is not defined as an industry in national accounts. Rather, it is an amalgam of industries such as travel, accommodation, food and beverage service, transportation, recreation and entertainment. It does this by contrasting data from the demand-side (the acquisition of goods and services by visitors while on a tourism trip) with data from the supply-side of the economy (the value of goods and services produced).
TSA is an accounting framework adopted by the United Nations and designed to measure goods and services associated with tourism according to international standards, concepts, classifications and definitions. In general, it is an instrument that measures the generation of tourism economic data (such as the direct contribution of Tourism to GDP) that is comparable with other economic statistics.
Briefing journalists regarding TSA, Tourism State Minister Sileshi Girma said that Ethiopia has established its TSA in collaboration with other ministries and pertinent stakeholders.
The establishment of TSA is a strategic initiative aimed at realizing the full economic potential of Ethiopia’s tourism sector by providing essential data for evidence-based policy formulation, decision making and strategic planning, Indicating that Ethiopia lacks of robust statistical framework for accurately measuring and analyzing, he said the sector’s economic contributions relying mainly on international tourist arrivals and visitor exit surveys.
The gaps as well as the fragmented approach to data collection limits the country’s ability to fully capitalize on the benefits of tourism and optimize its economic impact and hinders effective policy development, implementation, evaluation as well as the efficient operation of businesses within the sector, the state minister emphasized.
Thus, launching TSA will offer insights for the contribution of tourism to GDP, the sector’s size relative to other economic sectors, job creation, tourism’s contribution to investment, the impact of international tourism on the balance of payments and government revenue generated by tourism activities.
It was in 2023 that Ethiopia began the TSA project in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and Development and various stakeholders from both public and private sectors.
Tourism Satellite Account is a globally recognized statistical framework developed by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division, the International Monetary Fund and other international bodies.
In sum, nowadays, the nation is determined to boost its tourism revenue hoping for achieving a remarkable success from the smokeless industry. The country is the leading in Africa with inscribing more than 10 incredible world heritages by UNESCO comprised of or being known for its hospitable peoples. Thus, the nation has set to boost its tourism revenue to cover a tangible share to its GDP and utilizing more from its long-standing and huge natural and man-made tourist destinations.
BY TEWODROS KASSA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2024
