Challenge and Prospect of Ethiopian Tourism Policy

Abstract

In Ethiopia nature, culture and history merge to form a timeless appeal. The countries impressive tourism potential is truly a land of contrast and extremes, a land of remote and wild place, and of spectacular alpine terrain-including the semien mountain national park with its high 4620 meters peak at Ras Dashen one of UNESCO registered heritage site; and at the other end of spectrum, the Denakil depression 121 meters below sea level is among the lowest places on earth. However from these abundant resources the country has not benefited yet. Therefore questions about how tourism policies contribute to national development? What is wrong with the existing system? Why should the present policy be discarded? How did it become successful? These and similar other questions will have to be addressed first before proposing what measures should be taken to ameliorate the situation. For this reason, a brief account of the country's tourism needs to be provided Keywords: tourism policy, attractions, challenge, prospect Introduction As tourism continues to become more competitive, governments having to adopt a more entrepreneurial role in attracting not only tourists but also investors to their region. For instance in Ethiopia with growing tourism the government expanded infrastructures like road, new air port destinations, vehicles and hotels (private and governmental) etc. The questions raised surrounding tourism as a regional development tool deal with whether or not there can be real regional economic dispersion of the benefits of tourism. Tourism development projects, which do not build strong linkages to the surrounding community, will have little impact on the citizens who live nearby. Questions need to be asked about the most appropriate forms of tourism development growth poles so that the trickle-down effect can be maximized. While tourism may help to modernize a region, it may also cause the region to become dependent on external organizations. It is argued that community-based, grassroots tourism is a more sustainable form of development than conventional mass tourism as it allows communities to break away from the hegemonic grasp of tour operators and the oligopoly of local élites. It is argued that there needs to be a decentralization of tourism down to the community level. When I take this one to Ethiopian context, it is necessary for enhancement of tourism as well as generating additional funding, which circulates in the local community/population, self-esteem is enhanced for the community as control over the development process is maintained locally. Developing community-based tourism can be especially difficult in developing countries in term of such issues as access to information, lack of awareness and lack of access to finances and policy frame work. The peripheral nature of many communities interested in community-based tourism development raises questions as to how they will attract visitors. Much of the research on tourism employment is based in a western-centric, developed country perspective where tourism positions are often considered as seasonal and low paying. There for developing countries like Ethiopia has not earn sufficient income from tourism sector. In a developing country context, however, employment opportunities are more limited but have higher relative rates of payment than in other economic sectors. Even if positions are seasonal they are highly sought after. When possible policy set properly ,tourism employment can create opportunities for the local population to increase their income and improve their standard of living. It can also provide new opportunities for youth and women. A model based on service-centred tourism employment was presented as much of the work in tourism employment research has borrowed models from manufacturing and related models of production. Here, the gap between the concepts of socioeconomic development and socio cultural impacts of tourism development was explored. Many of the predominant theories of development have emerged from western schools of thought without much consideration being given to more traditional methods of development. Classifications of the major indices for social and economic development including income, trade, resource and quality of life are based within a western or modernisation framework. Within this framework, both economic development and the modernisation of living standards are expected to go hand in hand. However, indigenous lifestyles and the customs of some host communities, for example, are valuable commodities and movement to modernise these societies is criticised by the tourism industry. As a solution developing countries like Ethiopia should have to prepare tourism policy in considering this and other threats. By examining the complex nature of the relationship between the positive and negative impacts of tourism the writers argued that the applicability of measuring socioeconomic development based in a western framework to understand tourism development needs to be questioned(like Africa).