Tourism in Ethiopia: An urgent opportunity for economic diversification.

Abstract

‘Ethiopia!’. The name conjures up images of poverty, starvation, and conflict – remnants of the horrors of the ill-fated communist Derg era of the 1970’s. Yet the Ethiopian economy is growing at one of the highest rates in the world driven by massive infrastructural investment, much of which is financed by the Chinese (Sisay, 2016). Ethiopia still requires extraordinary growth and development to satisfy the development needs of the country, although policy makers are lethargic in taking advantage of the significant role tourism can play in this regard. Urgent attention is drawn to the opportunity cost of not developing the tremendous inherent potential of this industry. Drawing on theory, observation, analysis and case study research, the article describes the context of tourism in Ethiopia, and how tourism can support Ethiopia’s development needs. It provides a range of recommendations to develop the tourist industry, including prioritising tourism development through the initiation of a tourism strategy and immediate destination development and marketing for Addis Ababa.

Keywords

• Ethiopia
• tourism development
• tourism strategy
• tourism policy
• destination marketing
• economic diversification