Africa-Press Ethiopia
Ethiopia was concentrating only on the promotion and development of international tourism. The country did not recognize the potential benefits of the domestic one. However, the development of domestic tourism has enormous economic, social, cultural and political benefits.
It also minimizes seasonality of tourism activities, absorbs shock during hard times like COVID-19 pandemic, saves potential hard currency, creates solidarity among people, a source of investment and brings sustainable development in the country.
Tewodros Habtamu, Culture and Tourism Ministry Domestic Tourism Expansion and Development Directorate Coordinator told The Ethiopian Herald that promoting domestic tourism is one of the tourism recovery strategies. In the last, two years, the government has been performing various activities to develop and promote domestic tourism.
The expansion of parks and resorts can play a meaningful role in promoting domestic tourism as well as supporting the Unity, Entoto and other parks that developed recently have been becoming an opportunity to promote domestic tourism in Ethiopia than ever. Moreover, domestic tourists are frequent travelers than international tourists and less affected by situations of the international market.
Basically, as domestic tourism needs the collaboration and role of all stakeholders, the Ministry has developed the domestic tourism strategy to solve the problems. The draft strategy has been sent to the Office of the Prime Minister. “If it endorse, it will create various benefits and opportunities.”
The main challenge to promote domestic tourism is lack of awareness to effectively utilize the sector. People’s awareness about its economic and social benefits is at a low level. The tendency for international tourism development was also endangering the sector even if domestic tourism has social, economic and cultural benefits.
