ETHIOPIA: Tourism Transformation Council To Increase Tourist Inflow

The ever increasing Ethiopian airlines destinations, high standards of tourist facilities and public-private partnership towards tourism development have augmented tourist influx and also improved the city's capacity to host international conferences.

Speaking at 3rd Addis Ababa City Administration Tourism Transformation Council regular conference, City Mayor Driba Kumma called on private organizations and international well-known travel agents to work closely with the city administration towards organizing a large number of international conferences, exhibitions and tourist attraction events.

The Mayor added public-private partnership will be formed aimed at facilitating, leading and motivating the sector with a coordinated system.

Before three years, the Council was set up to develop and establish tourist destinations in the city with a view to attracting many more tourists to the city.

According to Driba, the Entoto and surrounding tourist development project to be built on 4,200 hectare is among the projects towards promoting tourism in the city.

For his part, Addis Ababa Tourism Bureau Head Gebretsadik Hagos underlined the need for collecting huge tourism revenue through active public involvement in the sector.

The City Tourism Transformation Council has been playing indispensable role in upholding the sector in a coordinated manner.

According to him, the number of people engaged in culture and tourism sector has exceeded to 29,000 in one year time and the sector has also created 130,000 jobs in the city.

Moreover, the city earns over 41 million Birr from tourism annually, he said, adding that currently the city has over 110 standard hotels.

Entoto and surrounding tourist development project office General Director Dr. Hiyab Gebretsadik said that the investment project that encompasses vast integrated touristic services like cultural centre, museum, over 55 lodges, 500 meters length tower, athletics training centre, small facilities hotels as well as Ethiopian ecological green parks, herbivores and carnivorous zoo, among others, estimated to be 4.8 billion Birr.

Upon completion, the project would play a great role in building the city's image.

Currently, the project office is inviting potential stakeholders and local communities to participate and contribute their share to the finalization of the project, he said.

He underline that local and cultural construction art, reflecting the manifestations of Ethiopian nation, nationalities and environmentally friendly site development are the core activities to be undertaken in the project.

He further said that the landscape of the site is favourable to tourism investment and huge tourist attraction.

According to the Bureau, some 782,000 tourists visited the city and 1.9 billion USD secured in the past fiscal year. It said the tourist inflow and the revenue from the sector has shown remarkable progress.