Tourism : the new Ethiopian challenge ?

Tourism revenues have been rising for several years in Ethiopia. An economic windfall that could be held back by a social and security context that is not conducive to welcoming visitors.

Tourism has become in a few years an essential part of the Ethiopian economy. As proof, it brought in $3.5 billion to the country in fiscal year 2017-2018, according to the department dedicated to the sector. This represents an increase of 5% over the previous year’s revenue of $3.32 billion.

Thus, nearly 934,000 tourists visited the country during this period. Despite a target of 1.25 million visitors, the trend is still upward: 886,800 tourists were registered in 2016-2017. Entries into the country that generated the creation of 177,000 jobs. This is slightly less than in the previous year, when 297,000 jobs were created.

A socio-political context that slows down national tourism
This slight decline is explained by a slowdown in activity in recent months. Although activity improved in the first and second quarters of the last fiscal year in Ethiopia, it declined in the third quarter due to instability in the country.
Indeed, the country has been experiencing a very uncertain socio-political situation for some time.
A delicate security context, despite Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s activism, which compromises domestic tourism. Last year, the authorities deplored the stagnation in the number of Ethiopian visitors, despite the growing number of foreign visitors. In order to reverse this trend, last September the government organized a programme around World Tourism Day to promote national tourism among the population. The activities had highlighted the historical and natural sites of Ethiopia.

Numerous tourist assets
Because there is enough to do for any tourist eager for culture and/or nature. Far from being the first tourist destination in Africa, compared to the 10 million visitors who visit Morocco every year, Ethiopia is nevertheless full of exceptional natural sites and historic monuments in excellent conservation.

The city of Lalibela, whose eleven churches carved out of rock attract tourists and Christians on pilgrimage, the city of Aksoum, one of the religious centres of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, or the Simien National Park, the lower valley of the Omo, a prehistoric site of world renown… are all sites inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. A rich and diversified tourist offer, which motivated the decision of the European Council on tourism and trade to elect Ethiopia « the best tourist destination in the world » in 2015.