No one has ever put in doubt the tourism potential Ethiopia avails. We have seen countries with much less attractions benefiting enormously economically from their tourist attractions even if they are not as numerous and varied as ours. The Ethiopian government realizes that tourism is a huge economic asset that should be exploited to the maximum and it has been listed tourism among the sectors that we need to expand and make the best use of it. In fact tourism figures as one of the five pillars of the Homegrown Economic Reform Program.
In many respects Ethiopia is a country that is endowed not only with natural wonders given its extremely varied landscapes and its unfathomable varieties of wild animals and birds species but also given its various religious and cultural monuments, statutes, castles and other remarkable artifacts that witness the thousands of glorious years of history of its peoples and its majestic leaders as inherited to us. Furthermore, Ethiopia is also considered by scholars as the ‘cradle of mankind’, the home of ‘Lucy’ the millions years old first hominids and ‘Selam’ another human skeleton which archeologists and paleontologists have admired as being the most ancient of complete remains of human beings. That is why the Ethiopian government has changed the old slogan used to promote tourism from the land of the “Thirteen Months of Sunshine” to the “Land of Origins”. Paleontologists have confirmed that the first human being has appeared and lived in Ethiopia. This by itself is a huge catch phrase that can be put to attract tourists to the country. It is well known that tourists adore and enjoy visiting rarities which could be historical, cultural as well as geographical or natural.
The importance of tourism cannot be overstated because it plays a huge role in the economy of the world in general. In many countries it constitutes a sizeable part of their GDP. There are countries including the most industrially advanced and rich ones who do everything within their capacity to attract more and more tourists to their countries because they know and have seen how much they earn in foreign currency from international tourism. In fact it has been named the ‘smokeless industry’ and given full attention by governments as it is also a source of millions of jobs.
In many advanced countries it is among the top ten huge income generators. It touches upon a variety of sectors such as the hotel and culinary industries, the transportation and logistics as well as other related factors, the sale of souvenirs and other related objects that all add up to making a huge impact on the overall economy.
Ethiopia’s tourism potential is practically untouched given to what extent it can go. When we see countries with much less tourist attractions capitalizing a lot on tourism we can say that we have a huge lot to go. As one of the most important and influential African countries Ethiopia can attract a lot of tourists to its beaches if it can prepare all the ground work for tourists. In the past few years there have been lots of efforts aimed to do exactly that.
The various resort projects that have been initiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed can be noted here. All of them have been completed and ready for use or are in the final phases of completion. The tourist attractions have not been limited to distant places from Addis but even here in the capital tremendous attractive initiatives have been taken and completed. It is worth noting that Addis is also a huge international airlines hub and millions of passengers transit here. This presents the occasion to attract these people to visit a few tourist destinations that could be of their taste or interest. Addis now presents several interesting tourists spots beginning with its monuments to its historic parks and museums.
Ethiopia’s magnificent sceneries have been put in display by the various projects under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s initiative launched four years ago with ‘Dine for the Nation’ project. Resorts such as Koyisha, Halala Kela, Chebera Churchura and Wonchi, and now only a few days ago the Gorgora Eco Resort Project that was inaugurated by the premier and other high government officials have been visited by many international organisations’ officials who are resident here. All those projects highlight the unique natural endowments of the country.
After their visit the diplomats stated that the Gorgora Eco Resort is a state of the art tourism destination that has a wonderful work of harmony between history, nature and human wisdom. UN Resident Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakabarov described the project as a state of the art facility that has everything to engage in ecotourism. He added the way the project has been designed is fully integrated with the landscape and does not destroy the harmony of the forest. It also has economic benefits that are vital to accelerate development.
Similarly Aurelio Patrizia Calabro of UNIDO expressed her amazement by the location and the way the place has been realized transmitting Ethiopian values. She said Gorgora is a jewel on a very ancient and famous lake that is Lake Tana. This is the historical path and it reflects the history of this beautiful country. Given that it has involved the community in its construction and later on management, particularly women will benefit from it in terms of availing employment which will contribute to the gender development project. Gorgora Eco Resort will be instrumental to promote culture, nature and tourism. Ethiopia’s competitiveness in the tourism industry will now increase with all these hidden attractions brought to the fore, she remarked.
The fact that Addis Ababa is the diplomatic capital of Africa and seat of many international organisations puts it at an advantageous place to better exploit its tourism potential if it readies it well as it is now doing. Conference tourism is not something that can be undermined because it presents the occasion for those who attend the frequent conferences to visit the country but also encourages them to come again with their families or tell others what they have seen here and encourage them to do the same when they have the time to go on a trip outside their respective countries.
In many ways Ethiopia is a tourist friendly and attractive country and this is what all those who have been here testify. With more than ten UNESCO inscribed world heritage sites and intangible items to be explored and viewed it can only be a especially curious and attractive place to visit and cultural and historical events to witness. In the past Ethiopia has not been well prepared to receive tourists with all the potential it could do because of lack of the necessary infrastructure such as the up to standard hotels in every spot where there are tourist sites, but also the best means of transportation and the best organisation to receive and accommodate tourists.
During the years of COVID 19, Ethiopia’s tourism industry was highly affected as has when there was the conflict in the north. Furthermore, the consistently negative publicity that was aired in many international media has also hurt the industry because what was aired was often exaggerated such as describing the situation in the country as ‘total chaos’ or destabilized every where while the conflict zones were the only exceptions and all the rest of the country was peaceful, safe and business as usual despite the instability in the zones where there could have been active hostilities. There are so many attraction sites in the south and east that are worthy of consideration even if the most reputed and known ones happened to be mainly the ones situated in the north. The resort areas of Koysha, Hallala Kela, and Chebera are all in the southern part of Ethiopia.
What was recently inaugurated around Gondar, Bahir Dar and Lake Tana, traditionally historical cities with immense attractions are now enriched by even more splendid site in the Gorgora Eco Resort, a place that many have described as having few equals any where in Africa. It is a huge tourist attraction that has been hailed as extraordinary by many visitors who went there to find out for themselves. Only words of admiration and appreciation have been expressed by all those who happened to have the privilege to visit it. For Ethiopia it is yet another touristic gem to be added to the already existing ones and this will further stimulate the appetite of visitors to step there and enjoy nature at its best as well as have an insight into the history and culture of the country.
It appears that the time has come for Ethiopia to capitalize well more than ever before on this tourist attraction and adding to those that are being carried out in Addis, the prospects remain bright. Ethiopia needs foreign currency and among the ways it can have it is by attracting as many tourists as possible. The new face of Addis thanks to the Corridor Development Project we now have a truly modern and green cosmopolitan that does not envy any other capital or attractive city in the world. It now has ultramodern avenues decorated with wonderful sidewalks and greenery with separate pavements for cyclists and people with disabilities. Based on the project of constructing a clean and healthy city things as moving fast towards constructing as many sanitary facilities as possible thanks to the intense participation of citizens particularly the business community who want to see their city beautiful, clean and healthy.
As the capital city of the African Union, the great Victory of Adwa is now immortalized at the newly inaugurated Adwa Victory Memorial which is also a pride of Africa. Africans and peoples of African origin can now come to Addis and be well informed about what their forefathers did in 1896 to foil the expansion of European colonialism on the continent. Which African would not like to come to Addis and immerse themselves in a memorable victory that shines across the years? The Adwa Victory Memorial is a window to the history of one of the greatest battles held on African soil. This is a story that has not been told and understood as it would deserve by all Africans and the memorial fills this gap that existed for years. Credit of course goes to all those who conceived, drafted and realized this extraordinary monumental gem that adds to the attractions of the City of Addis, in particular to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the City Mayor Adanech Abiebie.
BY FITSUM GETACHEW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 25 JULY 2024
