ADDIS ABABA – The Urban Tourism Competition guideline has been developed to promote the cultures and identities of the people of Ethiopia among the global community thereby attracting more tourist inflow and foreign currency earnings, Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCT) said.
Domestic Tourism Promotion Team Leader with MoCT Biniyam Asrat told The Ethiopian Herald that the guideline, which has been prepared in partnership with Ministry of Urban Development and Construction, will be operational by 2022.
“When we consider urban tourism competitions, there is a tendency to follow Western culture and the new guideline helps to promote the diverse culture of the people of Ethiopia and make our identity more recognizable among the global community.”
As to Biniyam, urban tourism competitions have paramount significance to enhance public interaction and local culture apart from their contribution to developing urban centers. The competitions will also help to encourage domestic tourism.
Meanwhile, the Ministry has prepared a draft system that intends to capitalize on tourism as one of the key solutions to avert unrest and insecurity through strengthening people-to-people interaction. The draft was submitted to the Ministry’s top management for further scrutiny.
Furthermore, a draft system has been prepared to transform the Ministry’s manual information management system to mechanical and address tourist destination management shortcomings.
As to him, the unrest in parts of the country coupled with COVID-19 pandemic are seriously affecting domestic tourism in Ethiopia.
Noting that better collaboration has been witnessed among domestic tourism actors, the expert highlighted that more jobs are needed to develop the sector.
“Everyone, from shoe shiner to top investors, should work in tandem to promote Ethiopia’s untapped tourism potentials and historical and natural tourist attraction sites as the low tourist inflow affects all.”
Media is one of the tourism partners and it should be playing its leading role by promoting the county’s tourist attraction sites to visitors, Biniyam noted.
BY ESSEYE MENGISTE
The Ethiopian Herald 30 May 2021
