Oromia national State is a land gifted with abundant cultural and natural assets of high touristic value. It is a land of astonishing natural beauty offering all sorts of landscape scenery ranging from semi-desert to afro-alpine highlands, which makes the region favorable for tourism industry.
The State is now developing tourist attractions, and is exploring new sites in the State without harming the environment. Doing so is significant in many ways. Chiefly, it creates job opportunity for the jobless and reduces problems related to unemployment in the country without costing the environment.
Since eco-tourism is a recent phenomenon to the State, there are a lot to be done in order to heighten the sector as there are underutilized potential tourist sites. In its primary job of developing the sector, the State’s tourism bureau would be exploring unexplored locations in the State and fulfilling the necessary infrastructure.
Speaking to The Ethiopian Herald, Kebede Desisa, Deputy Head of Oromia Culture and Tourism Bureau, stated that the Bureau is inaugurating strong network among the co-working institutions in its bid to harness the State’s tourism potential.
The Bureau has invited investors to take part in developing the industry. “They can open quality hotels and lodges around the tourist spots.” The other necessary requirement would be building road and other related infrastructures that could connect these places. The project is expected to generate job opportunity for huge number of job seekers, Kebede added.
Kebede noted that hotels play their own role in facilitating the sector. Out of about 300 hotels in the region, 32 of them are up to international standard. They are rendering a standard service. Following the invitation by the Bureau, investors are constructing hotels and lodges around various tourist spots. There are currently about 15 international standard level hotels under construction. The hotels will be opened starting from this closing year, as to him.
According to him, the tourism activity has played its role in reducing unemployment as well. A good number of youths have benefited from the sector. For instance, over 600 youths have benefited from Haro-Wenchi and Adaba-Dodola (Bale zone) projects alone. The hotel owners are benefiting from the project directly, and indirectly as well.
As to the Deputy Head, the nearby community is benefiting from the tourism industry projects in different shapes and forms. Renting horses, providing food and drink, acting as a local tour guide and translator are some of the ways they have benefited from the sector.
“There were fundamental reasons why tourism infrastructure was not in place. Tourism is a new phenomenon in Ethiopia. So, you cannot compare it with neighboring countries. It was not a government priority until recently. But, we can achieve a lot if priority is given to the sector”, said Kebede.
In previous years, the government did not pay attention to the sector, and as a result, tourism infrastructure was not in place. However, given that the government since then is giving premium priority to the sector, the State, and the country as a whole, can start to gain huge revenue from the sector.
The State has established a professionals institution – Oromia Hotel and Tourism Professionals Association (OHTPA) – with the aim of solving problems facing the tourism sector in the State. Talking to The Ethiopian Herald, Ketema Fufa, Director of the Association, said that it was established after making a series of research on finding the problems and how to solve them, and believes that it will help in that regard.
“It will help boost the tourism activity in the State, help create job opportunities for new graduates in the field of hotel and tourism. It also trains the various institutions that are involved in the sector.”
Also, he continued, the Association aims to raise the awareness of the community to enhance community-based conservation of national parks and sanctuaries. To this end, it trains stakeholders that are involved in the sector by providing them technical trainings on how to do business.
The Director also disclosed that the Association has the goal of introducing agro-tourism, adventure tourism, and geo-tourism to the region in the near future. It is also to commence various rehabilitation programs that could conserve the parks and industries, he pointed out.
Belay Kassaye, Deputy-Director of OHTPA, for his part pointed out that the Association primarily undertake awareness creation on how to achieve smart environmental eco-tourism and promote the tourism potential of the State. And though a lot of job opportunities have been created in the sector, it is not enough when compared with our potential, he concluded.
The Ethiopian Herald August 28, 2019
BY TAMERU REGASA
