ADDIS ABABA – Africa Tourism Olympiad, an Ethiopian initiative for African Tourism Industry, said tourism, which brings opportunities for its large population of youths, is the easiest and key sector for economic integration.
Abate Diga, ATO Project Office Managing Director told The Ethiopian Herald that tourism has everything it takes in bringing African countries together as a continent with economic integration adding that all the countries have the same blessings of tourism to some extent.
He said the ATO event will allow all African Countries to express their cultural, natural, historical and social heritages to the International community from September 27-29, 2019 here. It is a project that the AU considers as ‘Ethiopia’s Initiative for the Whole Africa.”
“The initiative encourages African countries to prioritize on complementing each other by identifying problems on the tourism sector and coming up with solutions that would work for the whole continent,” said Abate.Africa has diverse tourism resources which could allow the countries to embrace the idea of complementing each other instead of competing. In this case there has never been an organization to integrate African tourism. Therefore, it is crucial to bring all stakeholders and experts throughout Africa by the Olympiad for the first time in the continent and in Ethiopia, according to Abate.
“If the logistics is attractive, we could bring more people to the Olympiad and we could be fully involved in the Initiative, was the response from the countries we invited for the occasion. And I am glad to say that Ethiopian Airlines is willing to provide full cooperation including attractive discount for flight, attractive accommodation in its Hotel Skylight. We have also arranged local flight packages to visit significant tourist sites across Ethiopia,” he said.
The Ethiopian Herald, August 25/2019
BY HENOK TIBEBU
