Could you give to our readers a brief historical background of the Ethiopian Tourism Commission?
Tourism in Ethiopia started in the 1960's, under the leadership of a dynamic person named Habteselassie Tafesse. This person is still working with us as a consultant. In the 60's, the business picked up quite immediately and started expanding. Unfortunately the military government came to power in 1974, and nationalized all the hotels, tour operations and transportation systems. The entire environment was not conducive anymore for the development of tourism. However, after the E.P.R.D.F has taken over in 1991 and liberalized the economy, tour operation businesses were expanding again. In 1991 there was only one national tour operator, but now we have about 110 tour operators and ticket agents in the country. About 40 of them are only operating on tours. As we believe in public and private sector partnership, the Ethiopian Tourism Commission has been working and promoting jointly with these private investors. During the last 5-6 years the arrivals of tourists have increased by 50%. In addition, we are attending most the tourism fairs. For instance we have participated in the I.T.B fair (Berlin); in the E.I.T fair (Milan), in the world travel market fair (London) and in the American travel market fair (Orlando, Florida).
Can you give us some figures on tourist arrivals?
Although tourism was closed for 17 years in Ethiopia, we have registered last year about 116 000 tourists. We believe that's still quite modest with Ethiopian potential.
Q. What has been the reform measures taken to develop the tourism sector?
During the military regime, most of the hotels were owned by the government. Recently, we are privatizing them. Additionally, as access to own land has been relatively easy, many hotels have been built in the last 7 years.
How far is the privatization in the tourism sector?
Except for one national tour operator and some hotels, everything else has been privatized. These governmental owned hotels, such as the Hilton hotel, the Ghion hotels and the Wabe Shebele hotels are expected to be privatized in the near future. We are only waiting for investors.
Kenya, a neighboring country performs very well with its nature based tourism. Then why Ethiopia is not at the same level of performance, with its historic and nature based tourism?
That's precisely because our tourism was closed for about 20 years. It's true that Ethiopia has a very good potential. We have a wide variety of attractions as far as tourism is concerned. We can offer history, culture, wild life, scenery movies and friendly people to the international world. Our neighboring competitors may only have history, wild life or beaches at a time. We can provide almost everything combined together. The only thing that we are not providing might be skiing.
Most of the huge and high standard hotels are found in Addis Ababa, while most of the tourist attraction centers are found out of Addis. Can you tell us then, why private investors do not intend to buy hotels in the regions?
Relatively, we do have good standard hotels. Three and four star hotels do exist in the regions. We can find the Ghion chain hotels in Bahir dar, Lalibela, Gondar and Axum. We have also a hotel in Bahir Dar, with a view on the island monasteries in lake Tana and another one, called Imperial hotel in Gondar that are really good hotels. All these hotels, found on our historical routes are out for privatization.
Some of the newly built high standard hotels, that are owned by the private sector are close to bankruptcy. What are the reasons for this crisis?
I do not know. Cash flow problems might lead to bankruptcy. For the last few months, some have been complaining about not getting as many tourists as expected. This is mainly due because of the Ethio-Eritrean conflict. However, with the type of promotion that we have been engaged for the last 2 years, I think more tourists will come to visit in the future and the private sector will definitely be profitable.
What is the impact of the Ethio-Eritrean conflict in your sector?
As far as tourism is concerned, people do not tend to come to an area where there is a conflict, and risk their lives. Eventhough the number of tourists might not have increased as it ought to be, this conflict has not brought a decline in number. We have made a tremendous amount of promotional activities in the last two years. We have participated in big international fairs and made a lot of advertisements in different kind of magazines. Some of these publications are: Times; Paris Match; World Report of the Independent; Washington Times and Financial Times. We are now expecting many tourists to arrive; our hope has not yet been materialized. | Could you elaborate Mr. Mohammed Al Amoudin's role, in the development of tourism industry?
Sheik Mohammed Al Amoudin is the biggest investor. He has invested in many areas other than tourism. Hotel is the area he has invested most. He has built one of the biggest hotels in the world: Sheraton Addis. He has acquired a land in Arba Minch, south-west of Ethiopia, where a great number of tourists are attracted by the culture, the people and the wild life. He has also acquired a land in Debrezeit, near lake Bishaftou, that is 50 km from Addis Ababa. He is our partner in developing and promoting. Thus he is playing a big role in our sector.
There is no doubt that the potential area in Ethiopia is enormous. As our readers are always interested in new business opportunities, in which areas of your sector are you really interested to attract partners and foreign investors?
There is a big business opportunity in buying and building hotels. In lot of places we do not have the good hotels that we ought to have. I would expect to see additional hotels in Lalibela, Gondar, and Axum. In Bahir Dar we have a big hotel under construction. The new hotels that have to be build in the future do not have to be like the motels found in the West of world. For instance, in Lalibela, people live traditionally, in two storey houses; shuttled roofs that are built with stones and they use the first level to keep their domestic animals. An investor could take the same thing. It will be possible to build a kind of cottage; the ground floor will be used as a salon or living room and the top floor will be used as bedrooms. Of course, it should also have the basic needs of a hotel, like bathroom facilities. Building hotels in that kind of design will be good investment for the proprietors and fun for the tourists. We are now designing various hotel models, respective to the regions.
Are their already foreign companies interested to invest in the tourism sector?
Yes, the Prince of Kemidel holdings is interested in the Ghion and Wabe- Shebele chain hotels.
Eventhough, there have been a lot of promotion about Ethiopia, still work has to be done to make the country more visible and attractive. What is then your strategy as a commissioner to promote more?
We have to participate in major trades in a big manner and involve the private sector. We have to advertise more and more on various publications including on your magazine. We also have to make good films concerning Ethiopia. Finally, I believe we have to continue on producing posters and advertise on different television channels, like in CNN.
How confident are you in the future of the country?
I am very confident, because we have the resources, the potential, the skilled man power and friendly people. With some promotion and with the conflict been over, I think we will get good results.
Could you tell us briefly your professional background?
I am trained as an economist. I studied here and in the United States of America, on economical planning and development. For a number of years, I worked in the planning commission offices as an economist. Then, for fourteen years I have been the General Manager of wage board. As of two years, I am working as a commissioner of tourism.
What has been your biggest satisfaction as a commissioner?
Well, I could sense that Ethiopian Tourism Commission has managed to get the confidence of its people. The tour operators, hotel owners and the regions with tourist destinations have built confidence in our leadership. We work now as a team. That is my biggest satisfaction.
What will be your final message to our readers?
We would like them to know the new Ethiopia. Its true Ethiopia does not have a good image. Most people remember us with the famine of 1984, the draughts and war. But that was only a brief part of our history. This is a land of culture, history, beautiful scenarios, and friendly people.
Tourism depends on many things starting from transport. How is then your relationship with the other ministries?
We work very closely with many ministries. Among them is the ministry of transport, the ministry of culture and information and M.E.D.A.C (ministry of economic development and corporation). We also work very closely and have been promoting together with Ethiopian Airlines. The latter plays a very big role in the tourism of Ethiopia. |
