Will Ethiopia finally get its tourism act together?
27 July 2014 9:47 PM GMT
Africa’s most popular tourist destinations - Morocco and South Africa - got 9.3 million and 8.3 million tourists respectively in 2011. Ethiopia by contrast received just 523,000. And its 2013/14 figure is a little above 5,00,000 again. Accordingly, revenue about half a billion USD.
It is endowed with nine world heritage sites, rich cultural diversity, amazing wildlife, flora & fauna to flaunt - yet the country ranks 17th in the continent, for tourism. It admittedly can be attributed to lack of its government’s focus on the sector until recent times. However, if fresh tremors on this subject are anything to go by, things are ameliorating rapidly on this front.
Ethiopia is aggressively putting its tourism sector out of slumber. With neighbors Kenya and Somalia losing some of their sheen due to unrest, Ethiopia seems to somehow gain from it. Case in point, Africa Hotel Investment Forum 2014 (AHIF) which is an all important meet concerning the tourism and service industry in the continent recently decided to move its 3rd conference from original venue Kenya to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. And the participants seem to be only happy about it. One of the strong points that seemed to work for them is Ethiopian Airlines’ strong connectivity in the entire continent.
Ethiopian Airlines is playing a pivotal role in promoting its country’s tourism across the globe. In India, Ethiopian arrived 60 years ago, before any other from Africa. It displayed a rare gesture this week, when it named its newest Boeing 787 Dreamliner after the Taj Mahal. This is for the first time that the airline has named a Dreamliner aircraft after a historical or heritage site outside of Africa! But does our government appreciate/reciprocate a gesture like that? Heck, no! I wonder if they care… for we don’t have even one of our national or private airlines flying to Ethiopia yet. Not one!
It is endowed with nine world heritage sites, rich cultural diversity, amazing wildlife, flora & fauna to flaunt - yet the country ranks 17th in the continent, for tourism. It admittedly can be attributed to lack of its government’s focus on the sector until recent times. However, if fresh tremors on this subject are anything to go by, things are ameliorating rapidly on this front.
Ethiopia is aggressively putting its tourism sector out of slumber. With neighbors Kenya and Somalia losing some of their sheen due to unrest, Ethiopia seems to somehow gain from it. Case in point, Africa Hotel Investment Forum 2014 (AHIF) which is an all important meet concerning the tourism and service industry in the continent recently decided to move its 3rd conference from original venue Kenya to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. And the participants seem to be only happy about it. One of the strong points that seemed to work for them is Ethiopian Airlines’ strong connectivity in the entire continent.
Ethiopian Airlines is playing a pivotal role in promoting its country’s tourism across the globe. In India, Ethiopian arrived 60 years ago, before any other from Africa. It displayed a rare gesture this week, when it named its newest Boeing 787 Dreamliner after the Taj Mahal. This is for the first time that the airline has named a Dreamliner aircraft after a historical or heritage site outside of Africa! But does our government appreciate/reciprocate a gesture like that? Heck, no! I wonder if they care… for we don’t have even one of our national or private airlines flying to Ethiopia yet. Not one!
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