A few days ago Ethiopia celebrated the World Tourism Day and we have had lots of activities also because there were also the celebrations of the festivity of Irreechaa. Irreechaa is a huge thanksgiving day that comes at the end of the rainy season and the beginning of a new year especially for the Oromo community. The fact that it coincided with the World Tourism Day has also given it more attention and added more splendors to the occasion. At the same event various other activities were carried out to ramp up Ethiopian tourist industry introducing colorful occasions such as the Irreechaa festivity. Irreechaa is a symbol of peace, togetherness, reconciliation and thanks to the Lord for the end of the dark winter season and the beginning of the aura of the bright seasons of spring and summer.
The festival is carried out in the presence of thousands of people who come from every part of the country to Addis Ababa for the Hora Finfinnee celebration and the next day to Bishoftu at Hora Arsadii. In the last few years the festivity of Irreechaa has come to be one of the national holidays of the country even among the non-Oromo communities of Ethiopia. This has added to the various items of attraction of tourism from all over the country and abroad. In fact it is to be remarked that it has been inscribed in the UNESCO intangible heritage list as part of the Gadaa system the Oromo community’s administrative system that has been practiced for years.
Ethiopia has rich cultural and historic as well as natural attractions that are palatable for every kind of tourists depending on their tastes. There are no doubts about the tourism potential Ethiopia avails. Compared to many countries who manage to earn lots of money from the tourist industry, Ethiopia lags behind even with lots of treasures that it can put to the attention of tourists. Those who have had the occasion to visit Ethiopia have witnessed and admired the quantity and quality of attractions on multiple fronts. The deep cultural values that Ethiopians have preserved intact for centuries are now attraction to tourists who beyond just visiting them have also indulged in researches of various types in historical context and archeological and paleontological sciences.
We have seen countries with much less attractions benefiting enormously economically from their tourist attractions even if they are not as numerous and varied as ours. The Ethiopian government having realized that tourism is a potentially huge economic asset that should be exploited to the maximum it has been promoting all the tourist attractions and assets by preparing the adequate facilities and infrastructure to make tourists comfortable when they come here.
Hence tourism has become one of the sectors that we need to expand and make the best use of it. That is why tourism figures as one of the five pillars of the Homegrown Economic Reform Program to be given all the attention it deserves. That is why every year the World Tourism Day is marked with various original events with special emphasis on the Irreechaa festival and the week of activities that relate to it. There were various events such as beauty contest named as Miss Tourism and the exhibition of the various kinds of Oromo traditional cuisine expressed through a variety of food specialties peculiar and typical of the Oromo community.
In many respects Ethiopia is a country that is endowed not only with natural wonders given its extremely varied landscapes and its unfathomable varieties of wild animals and birds species but also given its various religious and cultural monuments, statutes, castles and other remarkable artifacts that witness the thousands of glorious years of history of its peoples and its leaders as inherited to us.
Furthermore, scientists have acknowledged that Ethiopia is the ‘cradle of mankind’, the home of ‘Lucy’ the millions years old first hominid and ‘Selam’ another human skeleton which archeologists and paleontologists have admired as being the most ancient of complete remains of human beings. That is why the Ethiopian government has changed the old slogan used to promote tourism from the land of the “Thirteen Months of Sunshine” to the “Land of Origins”. It is well known that tourists adore and enjoy visiting rarities which could be historical, cultural as well as geographical or natural.
The importance of tourism cannot be overstated because it plays a huge role in the economy of the world in general. In many countries it constitutes a sizeable part of their GDP. There are countries including the most industrially advanced ones who do everything within their capacity to attract more and more tourists to their countries because they know and have seen how much they earn in foreign currency from international tourism. In fact it has been named the ‘smokeless industry’ and given full attention by governments as it is also a source of millions of jobs. In many advanced countries it is among the top ten huge income generators.
Ethiopia’s tourism potential is practically untouched given to what extent it can go. When we see countries with much less tourist attractions capitalizing a lot on tourism we can say that we have a long road to go. As one of the most important and influential African countries Ethiopia can attract a lot of tourists to its beaches if it can prepare all the necessary ground work.
In the past few years there have been lots of efforts aimed to do exactly that.
The various resort projects that have been initiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) can be noted here. All of them have been completed and ready for use or are in the final phases of completion. The tourist attractions have not been limited to distant places from Addis but even here in the capital tremendous attractive initiatives have been taken and completed. It is worth noting that Addis is also a huge international airlines hub and millions of passenger’s transit here. This presents the occasion to attract these people to visit a few tourist destinations. Addis presents several interesting tourist spots beginning with its monuments to its historic parks and museums.
Ethiopia’s magnificent sceneries have been put in display by the various projects under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s initiative launched four years ago with ‘Dine for the Nation’ project. Gorgora, Koyisha, Halala Kela, Chebera Churchura and Wonchi are parts of this effort. The state of the art facilities will impress visitors because they may not expect such excellent resort areas that they are accustomed to in other localities. But when they add to that various cultural and religious festivities such as Meskel Demera, Timket, Irreechaa and other New Year festivities of the various peoples of Ethiopia, they realize and acknowledge that it was worth visiting Ethiopia. All of these events highlight the unique natural and historical and archeological endowments of the country.
The fact that Addis Ababa is the diplomatic capital of Africa and seat of many international organizations puts it at an advantageous place to better exploit its tourism potential if it readies it well as it is now doing. Conference tourism is not something that can be undermined because it presents the occasion for those who attend the frequent conferences to visit the country. It also encourages them to come again with their families or tell others what they have seen here. .
In many ways tourists have witnessed that Ethiopia is a tourist friendly and attractive country. With more than ten UNESCO inscribed world heritage sites and intangible items to be explored and viewed, it can only be a especially curious and attractive place to visit, In the past Ethiopia may have lagged behind in terms of preparations to accommodate tourists with all the potential. The scarcity of up to standard facilities and amenities that tourists are accustomed to may have discouraged from coming to Ethiopia. But Ethiopia also enjoys one of the most moderate and healthiest climatic conditions in the world with comfortable temperatures. Now that certain lacking infrastructure have been completed tourists could change their mind and flock to Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is now trying to counter the not so positive publicity that some of the mainstream international media have been transmitting. This has definitely discouraged tourists from visiting our country. Many have written alleging that security is an issue in Ethiopia while it is only in identified pockets of the land that have had some form of instability and the government has never declined to accommodate the claims of these armed forces that persist in their attempts to destabilize the country.
Ethiopia also realizes that given the importance of Ethiopia in geopolitical terms and given that it is a major influence in the African and international scene as a whole there are indications of certain tendencies to interfere in the internal affairs of the country. But there are no doubts that Ethiopia is committed to counter such negative developments and assert its sovereignty and legitimate interests in the Horn of Africa and beyond.
Only words of admiration and appreciation have been expressed by all those who happened to have the privilege to visit the Ethiopia of today. The recently inaugurated resorts areas in several parts of the country is expected to further stimulate the appetite of visitors to step there and enjoy nature at its best as well as have an insight into the history and culture of the country.
It appears that the time has come for Ethiopia to capitalize well more than ever before on this tourist attraction and adding to those that are being carried out in Addis, the prospects remain bright.
Ethiopia needs foreign currency and among the ways it can have it is by attracting as many tourists as possible. The new face of Addis thanks to the Corridor Development Project we now have a truly modern and green cosmopolitan city that does not envy any other attractive city in the world. It now has ultramodern avenues decorated with wonderful sidewalks and greenery with separate pavements for cyclists and people with disabilities. Based on the project of constructing a clean and healthy city things are moving fast towards constructing as many sanitary facilities as possible thanks also to the voluntary participation of citizens particularly the business community who want to see their city attractive, clean and healthy.
As the capital city of the African Union, the great Victory of Adwa is now immortalized at the newly inaugurated Adwa Victory Memorial which is also a pride of Africa. Africans and peoples of African origin can now come to Addis and be well informed about what their forefathers did in 1896 to foil the expansion of European colonialism. Indeed the Adwa Victory Memorial is a window to the history of one of the greatest exploits of Ethiopian and African history. In this regard the efforts of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Mayor Addis Ababa Adanech Abiebe and all those who took part in this huge project and realized it must be accorded the deserved credit.
Ethiopia will continue to strive to meet all the demands of potential tourists and fill the gaps as it goes ahead with its trajectory of growth and development until it realizes the full potential of its rich attractions. Ethiopia will one day assert and realize its right and deserved position in world tourism industry.
BY FITSUM GETACHEW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 10 OCTOBER 2024
