Tourism in general and more particularly religious tourism is of paramount importance for a country’s social, political and economic development coupled with obtaining greater recognition from different international scholars and organizations. Ethiopia is one of these countries that are rearing benefits from the sector.
Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic country that harbors different religious beliefs. Christianity, Islam and Judaism are among the main religions in Ethiopia. And each one of them has unique features, manifestation and tourism opportunities. Therefore, the country has a great chance to be benefited from religious tourism.
For instance, Ethiopia has obtained recognition from UNESCO through inscribing nine tangible and four intangible world heritages. Timket, the founding of the true Cross, Irreechaa, Axum and Lalibela are among the tangible and intangible world religious heritages that have got a recognition from UNESCO.
Last week many cities and villages in Ethiopia were flooded by large number of people; including religious leaders, Sunday school students, youth, women, children, foreigners and other parts of the society with well decorated clothes. Apart from this, the cities and villages were also covered with Ethiopian national flag, church’s logo, balloons, rushes and incense’s smell that enabled the ceremony very colorful.
Timiket is celebrated on January 19th, corresponding to the 11th day of Tir according to the Ethiopian calendar. It commemorates the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan and is best known for its ritual reenactment of baptism.
During the celebration, a large number of local and international tourists have taken part due to the effective promotional activities undertaken and as UNESCO inscribed Timket in 2019 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Following the inscription, the number of tourists coming to Ethiopia to attend the Timket festival was expected to significantly increase. According to Fitsum Kassahun Public Relation and Communication Director at the Ethiopian Tourism Organization (ETO), UNESCO’s inscription of Timket festivity enabled the number of tourist flows to rise up from the previous 843,000 to 1.5 million this year, he noted.
This shows the inscription has significantly increased Timket’s international and acceptance. Apart from this, the inscription of the festival is highly significant for country’s economic development. The above stated number of tourists will invest some of their capital here in Ethiopia. According to him, last year it was able to earn 3.4 billion USD from the total of 843,000 tourists.
Approached by The Ethiopian Herald Gebremariam Yirga, Director of Gondar cultural center said that most of religious ceremonies in Ethiopia are bases for world festivals. Hence, religious tourism has a direct impact on economic development of a given country. According to him, more than 2 million people have visited Gondar for celebrating Timket of which about 35 thousands of them were foreigners.
As to him, most of the guests of culture week following at Gondar were impressed by the different ceremonies which were held and organized by the cultural center. During the week most guests were buying different cultural items of which some were paying in foreign currencies. Therefore it will also help for increasing city’s as well as country’s economy, he noted.
Throughout Timket, the large numbers of local and foreign people fly to Ethiopia likely to attend the festivity. Also there is high demand of different goods and services by the participants. Therefore the government could get different revenue particularly from transport or air ticket and taxes from different goods and services. This can actually help the country to generate high income, Gebremariam stated.
All things considered stakeholders should work in depth for further benefit of the country via religious tourism. Specially; ministry of culture and tourism, religious sectors, tour guides and other stakeholders should work hand in hand for increasing nation’s economic development, they suggested.
The Ethiopian Herald January 25/2020
BY HIZKEL HAILU
