Bravo and good news for Ethiopia!! Some folks may be cynical about the value and the potential of tourism for a country such as Ethiopia. But let me explain. Ethiopia has many attractions (natural factors, the hospitality of attractive and hospitable people across ethnicity, rich culture, and rare animals, tremendous biodiversity and bird life, etc... Do not forget the weather-13 months of Sunshine. Those of us who live in the Snow Belt appreciate this especially this time of the year! Where on earth can you live with out heat or air conditioning, except in Ethiopia, etc..There are of course the usual historic attractions (Lalibela, Gondar, Axum, etc including in the south places like Arba Minch. Indeed, Ethiopia is potentially more attractive tourist industry than neighboring Kenya whose primary asset is wild animals and Safari, and Kenya gets huge export revenue from Tourism. Ethiopia combines both historic and cultural assets with natural and eco-tourism.
Indeed, Ethiopia has huge "comparative advantage" (to use the jargon of economists) in Tourism which will create employment and if properly managed. Also we should understand the foreign domestic investment (FDI) follows tourism. It is from both foreign and domestic investment in areas such as Tourism that Ethiopia can get out of poverty very quickly, and engage globalization to its advantage.
But, the challenge is to make the country attractive to visitors by building better roads, hotels, improving service, with better communication facilities, reducing red tape to travelers and visitors in and out of the country, and across regions both for citizens and foreigners, and attracting domestic foreign private investment to tourism. These are the challenges. The natural and the human factors are there, what is needed is an enabling environment and policy environment to move the Tourist industry forward as well as other key areas of the economy such as developing agro-industry development, etc.. Even the Ethiopian Diaspora alone can make a huge contribution just visiting the country and spending their money. Of course foreigners usually love Ethiopia.
The bottom line is it is great to hear Ethiopia has made the top tourist destination.
Sincerely,
Sisay
____________________ Sisay Asefa, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Economics Director, Center for African Development Policy Research (CADPR)/HIGE Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI. USA. 49009 Phone: 269 387 5556 (Economics) Office: 5545 Friedmann Hall http://homepages.wmich.edu/~asefa/
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