This is not obvious the best time for global tourism to thrive. Conflicts in many places, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the big relapse in COVID-19 in China, once dubbed the most successful country in the world to fight the pandemic with its zero tolerance policy, and the economic recession threatening many developing as well as developed countries, are recipes for additional disasters in the tourism sector that has so far survived on borrowed time. Global tourism may not be dead but it is ailing from multiple crises.
Wars and pandemics are obvious the biggest enemies of global tourism that basically relies on the free and peaceful movement of people of different cultures across borders. Many developing countries are relying on tourism to support their economies, balance their budgets and plan growth. Tourism is one of the biggest employers of manpower even by global standards. It is a clean industry that is free from pollutions, thus eco-friendly and requiring small investment to manage while its returns are lucrative. The positive cultural impacts of international tourism can even be more significant than its economic contributions. Tourism helps not only the movements of people but also the exchange of experiences, the spread of knowledge and technology.
Perhaps Tourism can be taken as the biggest cultural drivers in the world as the basic reason of tourism is the eagerness to see how people in other places live and interact with them. One of the biggest instruments of cultural exchanges among the people of various countries and cultures is believed to be tourism, which is at the same time an industry, a cultural activity, an entertainment, a health and sports engagement.
However, the global tourism industry had suffered the hardest hits following the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic throughout the world. The pandemic has hit almost all sectors of economies in almost all countries despite the fact that the level of damages vary from one place to the other. At the earliest stage of the pandemic, many analysts believed that Africa would be devastated by it and its economy would fall in shambles. The reality however belied all such exaggerated and sometimes, darkest predictions by the scientific or political community in some Western countries that are fond of painting Africa always in the darkest colors. Africa, like any part of the world had its share of damages due to the pandemic and like any country is dealing with it somehow effectively despite the predictions to the contrary.
The tourism sector in all countries was also the hardest hit by the pandemic although other sectors could somehow fight back and revive faster. And as the entire world knows and appreciates, tourism for many African countries is one of the most important foreign currency earners and employers of manpower. With relatively little investment, the tourism sector in Africa had sustained formidable growth in incomes and employments and helped many Africa countries, notably Kenya and Ethiopia in East Africa, witness a period of economic booms in general. In the last two or three years, the situation in the COVID-19 pandemic and global tourism fluctuated from pessimism to guarded optimism. And now with the relapse of the pandemic in China in a big way, the global tourism is bound to take another hard hit.
China is presently the number one country in the world that is making positive contributions to the tourisms sector. Chinese tourists are everywhere in the world, visiting places, and spending money in the process. Different categories of Chinese tourists are enjoying different destinations. Some of them go to Europe which is an expensive place for foreign tourists to stay while others choose cheaper itineraries in Africa or Latin America where they can buy services with relatively little money and enjoy themselves quite freely.
With conflict presently simmering in Ukraine threatening to spread and claim more victims, sowing the feeling of insecurity in the process, the number of tourists from Europe is bound to be drastically reduced in the coming few months unless the conflict is quickly resolved. It is however sad to realize that it is easier to start a war than bring it to a happy conclusion. This is in fact what dims the prospects for early revival of tourism in the rest of the world.
Ethiopia has also suffered from war and the pandemic like any other countries in the world. Its tourist sector has likewise witnessed a period of low activity and low income. As the flow of foreign currency from abroad is at its lowest and loans and assistance are sharply reduced, the country’s economy may be facing the prospects of high inflation and low growth rates in the short and medium term perspectives. As far as the tourism sector is concerned, unemployment is rife in the traditional tourist destinations such as Lalibela, Gondar, Axum and others that were negatively affected by the recent conflict in those places.
While eastern and southern Ethiopia tourist destinations are relatively conducive to normal tourist flow, negative media reports coupled with the spread of new COVID-19 variant in Europe as well as in Ethiopia are making the bad situation even worse as far as tourism is concerned. However this does not mean the situation is totally hopeless or that the flow of tourists has been reduced to naught. Addis Ababa and many other places around it are still visited by foreign tourists. Another factor that creates hope in the near future is the growth in domestic tourism in Addis Ababa and its environs or in places renowned for their natural beauties such as Lake Wonchi which is recently designated the best tourist destination.
According to the latest reports on tourism activities in and around the Ethiopia capital Addis Ababa, the newly opened Entoto Park, in the northern part of the city has so far been visited by more than 500 000 local and foreign visitors. This site together with the refurbished Menelik Palace and the Friendship Park, the biggest library in Ethiopia called Abrehot, aare must-visit spots for local and foreign visitors. The potential income from local tourism is so important that it may be time to think about turning the spot on the potentials of local sites in and around Addis Ababa as lucrative sources of foreign currency.
It is quite obvious that the local economy is facing shortage of foreign currency for imports and the need is increasingly felt for tourism officials to imagine creative ways of making the most out of the available tourist destinations in and around the capital Addis Ababa. An aggressive media campaign particularly targeting foreign tourists should be implemented in order to exploit all available avenues to boost foreign currency income. Even within Addis, there are many spots that should be turned into tourist destinations for local or foreign visitors. The old Sheikh Hojele palace popularly known as ‘Shegole’ and located in the west of Addis, the old Indian and Italian architectures right in the heart of Piazza, the old residences of Menelik’s aristocrats nearby the palace and bearing the marks of the times long past, are all potential tourist attractions. You don’t always need big places and impressive architecture to turn into a tourist site. The tastes and needs of tourists are varied and sometimes odd. A small structure that has historical significance can as well have magnetic attraction for tourists who prefer to visit small but interesting places. Students and members of the new generation can be encouraged to visit these places and learn their significance against the payment of small fees that would go into the renovation of these sites.
Lake Wonchi is a good example of local tourist attraction. The lake has been popularized to foreign audiences’ mainly online and tourist organizations have turned their attention to it and the result was more than satisfactory. Wonchi is designated as one of the most beautiful places worth visiting. It is now time to build on what has been so achieved in this area. Addis Ababa and its environs are rich in potential tourist attractions. For instance let us take the Yerer Mountain located less than 40km south of Addis Ababa, that can be seen in the distance when you drive on the new Express Road. From a distance the Yerer Mountain may look quite an ordinary elevation.
Yet, nearby the highest peak, you can find an old monastery, the monastery Yerer Sellassie, named after the church of Sellassie that is perching on top of a small hill and where a famous site of holy water with curative properties for people possessed by the demons is located nearby. Right in front of the church stands the highest peak of Yerer Mountain dotted with green trees mixing with stony and barren spots and giving the whole place an imposing if not a strangely intimidating air.
There is a dusty road leading from the Express Road to the church and from there one can climb the hills and descend the gorges to reach the famous peak below which, according to oral legend, archangel Sellassie chased the demons and threw them down the ravine below the Yerer Mountain. You may not be able to check whether the legend about the demons is true or not, but you can climb up the escarpments and go down the dizzying altitude and enjoy breathing perhaps the cleanest air south of Addis.
Yerer Mountain can be used as a good spot for hikers or mountain climbers. What is required is to familiarize the spot online and invite some of the most dedicated hikers to come to the place and test their endurance or the challenges the mountain is offering them. It is as simple as that. The local authorities in the Dukem and Bishoftu towns, together with experts from the tourism bureau, could for instance take the initiative to study the place and find out how to turn Yerer Mountain into a tourist spot for hikers. Not only for hikers but also for bird watchers as the entire place is seething with flocks of birds that may not be available in other places in and around Addis Ababa. In this way, other potential tourist spots could be explored around the capital and be used as destinations for foreign as well as local visitors.
As we said above, this is indeed a tough time for global tourism. Yet the situation is not entirely hopeless. One of the alternatives to navigate the disturbed waters of global tourism may be to fully explore the potentials of local tourism and see how it can help the country reach the other shore. The experience of Addis Ababa, if successful, can be replicated in the other regional towns such as Hawassa, the capital of Sidama region the south and Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara region in the north. All these places are full of so far unexplored but potentially lucrative tourist attractions and it may be time to see in what way these places can help the economy as well as help people earn incomes from these activities.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 20 MARCH 2022
