BY MENGESHA AMARE
It is widely approved that Ethiopia possesses remarkable tourism potentials due to its unique and largely unexplored cultural, historical, archaeological as well as tangible and intangible natural resources. Those resources are cardinal in attracting visitors and are the basis on which strong tourism industry can be built thereby reinforcing the economic growth.
Benishangul Gumuz State is one of the regions which have a potential of tourism in Ethiopia. Cognizant of the fact that national celebrations and tourism events help countries boost economic development through tourism, this state recently hosted world Tourism Day celebration for the 35th time in Ethiopia.
Having a stay with The Ethiopian Herald in connection with the visiting program of Shenga Falls located at 32 kms away from Assosa town in OmoshaWoreda, Sheik Hojellie Al-Hassen Civil Trial and Assosa Museum tour guide, Suleiman Abdullahi said that, with its more than 3,000 years of history and more than 80 ethnic communities, each with their own distinct languages, cultures and traditions, norms and cultural assets, Ethiopia stands out as a unique country in Africa.
He said that, the most obscure of Ethiopia’s regions, practically never visited by tourists, is Benishangul Gumuz, which runs for about 2,000 km along the Sudanese border to the east of Amhara, this remote and relatively underdeveloped area is characterized by a hot and humid climate with a capital town of Asosa.
He said, “The state is very much endowed with numerous tourist attraction sites among others the Abay Dam, Dejaznach Mohamed Banjaw Palace, His majesty Haileselassie I tree cave, cemetery and civil trial of Sheik Hojellie Al-Hassen, Shenga Falls, Mao Komo National Park, AngTok Spring Water.”
For so long and still tourism attraction sites and assets in Benishangul Gumuz region have not been promoted enough due to a number of factors like generation’s low level of understanding their country. Basically, knowing Ethiopia well helps make a difference, bridges generation differences and enables the country to be well-to-do, he underlined.
He further stated that, Ethiopia in general and Benishangul Gunuz state in particular is highly endowed with myriads of tourist attraction sites, tangible and intangible heritages as well as natural and manmade attractions.
Tourism is a circulation of people who travel to or stay in places outside their home country; it is also regarded as a major ingredient in the economic development strategy. However, various external and internal factors have been affecting the sustainable development of the tourism industry in the country in general and in the stated region in particular, he added.
“Although Ethiopia possesses numerous natural, religious, historical, non-natural and cultural tourism attractions, the economic contribution and its potential are unparalleled. Shortage of tourist facilities, lack of skillful human resources, weak promotion, lack of integration and political will are the major negatively contributing factors along this line,” he underlined.
According to Suleiman, even though Benishangul Gumuz state possesses massive tourism development potentials with its unique biodiversity and spectacular topographic features, its economic contribution to the country is unmatched. Yes, the state has endowed with tourism potentials. But, its tourism industry development is in an infant stage though promising steps are now being taken to help the state exploit its tourism potentials.
As to him, the existing generation is expected to well know what Ethiopia is and introduce the numerous tourist attraction sites it possesses so as to get the country affluent and aid independent through utilizing its resources.
According to Suleiman, the Ministry of Tourism and state tourism bureaus have to capitalize on a range of tourism potentials via equipping the generation with the required knowledge of their country and transforming the means by which tourism is promoted instead of running scattered activities.
He said, “The tourism sector is now reviving, though not as expected, despite COVID-19, conflict and other related factors’ serious impact on the sector. Benishangul Gumuz state has uniquely been rich in minerals, a number of tourist attraction sites, and fundamentally gracious with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam by which the country will make poverty history within the shortest time possible if we all work on the 70 islands around it. This would undoubtedly help the country boost socio economic progress, cultural development and balance climate change impacts.”
As to Suleiman, tourist attraction sites, countless heritages and other resources are here and there in the country, what matters is producing a generation excellently knowing the inside out of the country. In so doing, exploiting the utmost tourism potential for the country out of the sector would be at manageable and beneficial level.
Suleiman further elucidated that, Ethiopia has a wealth of natural and cultural resources, with some unique cultural and natural features that set it apart from other African destinations. In spite of all the opportunities, a range of obstacles and challenges hinder competitive and sustainable tourism development in Ethiopia.
To mention but a few he said, limited understanding of tourism as a development and export sector among high-level government officers, institutional framework in place but weak implementation capacity, lack of skilled human resources and financing as well as improved coordination at all levels, poor quality of service mainly due to lack of trained manpower, very limited accommodating capacity of international standards for leisure tourism, lack of basic and IT infrastructure challenges for tourism businesses, poor visitor management in natural and heritage sites and little attention for sustainable practices among public and private players.
As learnt from Suleiman, tourism has been a vehicle for economic development. Intuitively, it could be considered as a valuable development opportunity for Ethiopia. Tourism can provide citizens with work opportunities, help establish small, medium and large enterprises, lead to skills development in tourism and contribute to rural development.
As to Suleiman, the sector has also improved infrastructure and ultimately contribute to the government’s coffers. Tourism can be a powerful stimulant for economic growth and development, indeed, he said adding that this is especially true for economies with limited resources, where on a macro level, economic growth can be fostered through foreign exchange earnings and increased state revenue, while on a micro level, it can lead to an improvement in individual well-being through job creation, better revenue or income distribution and balanced regional development.
As diversification of the economy and export driven growth are important contributors to sustainable economic growth, Ethiopia, with limited mineral resources of course, has opted for a strategy of industrialization to help it on its growth trajectory.
Suleiman further expounded that World Tourism Day 2022 was celebrated under the theme ‘Rethinking Tourism’ highlighting the transformative way of exploiting tourism in various places. Developing countries such as Ethiopia are emerging as the important players, and increasingly aware of their economic potential.
He said, “The importance of inbound tourism has grown exponentially, because of its growing contribution to the economic growth in the long run. Yes, tourism enhances economic growth by augmenting the foreign exchange reserves, stimulating investments in new infrastructure, human capital and increases competition, promoting industrial development, creates jobs.”
The nexus between tourism and economic growth has to be well studied and help the nation make a difference in all aspects using the untapped sector. In fact, the contribution of tourism development to economic growth in the Ethiopian economy would be immense if the country is in a position to well exploit it, he added.
In a nut shell, tourism can spur economic prosperity in Ethiopia and other developing countries when the sector has received special attention and great care. Most of the developing countries are devoid of rich facilities and popular tourist incentives to get promoted as important destination and in the long run promotes economic growth.
To this end, these countries need a staunch support from all sections of authorities, non-government organizations, and private sector in due course of attaining sustainable growth in tourism. Both state and non-state actors must recognize this growing industry and its positive implication on economy.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2022
