Could you comment on the development of the tourism sector and what the government is doing to promote the sector?

First of all, tourism started in Ethiopia in the late 1950's and early 1960's under the dynamic leadership of Ato Habte Selassie Tafesse. He is an energetic man and he was doing everything to promote Ethiopia and Ethiopian tourism. He is still active and is working with us mostly in different promotional activities. The sector started developing at the time and tourist arrivals registered constant increases until the military take-over in 1974. Then most of the tourism facilities such as hotels, activities in tour operation were nationalized and the image of the country deteriorated because of the political turmoil and civil strife. So tourism, in general, came to a standstill.

After the EPRDF take-over in 1991, tourism started picking up again. First of all, the new government has an economic development strategy which is known as Agriculture Development-led Industrialization Strategy. The emphasis is on agriculture, on rural development where some 85% of the population lives. Given the problem of drought situation it is natural that we give emphasis to agriculture, to rural development, to food security and food self-sufficiency. For this development strategy to work it has to be supported by the export sector and tourism, as you know, is a form of export. That is how tourism fits into our development strategy. It is not a big sector as of yet, but it is an important sector especially given the country's potential.

Could you tell us about the main assets of Ethiopia in terms of tourism and what you are doing to develop those main assets?

The country is endowed with an array of tourist attractions: historical, cultural and natural attractions. First of all, we present ourselves as " the cradle of humankind" because of the discovery of Lucy one of the earliest hominid. Some of the earliest tools - stone tools dating back to 2.5 million years - were discovered in Ethiopia. The oldest homo-sapien, our immediate anscentor ( 160,000 years old) was also found in Ethiopia.

There is a great deal of history in Ethiopia. There is pre-Christian civilization of the Axumite Empire with obelisks that date back to 2, 500 - 3000 years. The longest monolithic staele ( 33 metres) that has ever been erected by humans is found in Ethiopia. There is early Christian history. Ancient churches and monasteries of the Axumite period in Axum which is also believed to be the repository of the original Ark of the Covenant and Debre Damo. There is Lalibela - which is known as Africa's Petra - with 11 rock-hewn churches built in the 12th and 13th centuries. There is Gondar which was the capital of Ethiopia with its imperial castles built in the 16th, 17th centuries. We have the island monasteries on Lake Tana. In the east we have the historical walled-city of Harar which is about 1000 years old. It was the centre of caravan trade and Islamic romance.

We have cultural diversity and attractions. Ethiopia has 80 nationalities, three of the major religions - Christianity, Islam, Judaism as well as other traditional faiths. Each nationality has its own culture, its own food, its own hair style, its own music and dances. So the country is a mosaic of people and culture.

We have natural attractions - gorgeous mountains like the Semien and Bale, long rivers like the Blue Nile, the Omo, virgin forests, national parks with endemic mammals such as the Walia Ibex, the Mountain Nyala, the Gelada Baboons. We also have about 840 species of birds - four times as many species as, for instance, in Britain . So with all there mountains and rivers that are also suitable for white water rafting the potential for nature tourism too is immense. Some of these attractions have been designated by the UNESCO as world heritage sites.

By way of promotion, we have been promoting tourism mostly in the tourism generating countries of Western Europe and North America. As of late we participate in about 10 tourism trade fairs every year. For instance, every January we go to the Vakantie in the Netherlands and to the FITUR in Madrid. In February we go to BIT in Milan and in March to three travel fairs - the International Tourism Exchange ( ITB) in Berlin, which is the biggest in the world, the Salon Mondiale du Tourisme ( SMT) in Paris and the TUR in Gutenberg for the Scandinavian Market. As Addis Ababa has excellent conference facilities, the UNECA conference centre among others, and outstanding hotels such as the Sheraton Addis and the Addis Ababa Hilton we also want to attract conference tourism. Over the last two years we have been attending the European Incentive and Business Travel Market (EIBTM) which takes place every May in Geneva. Also in May we go to the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai to attract tourists from the gulf region. In November we attend two travel fairs: the World Travel Market ( WTM) in London which is perhaps the second biggest and the JATA in Japan every two years. Some three years ago we used to go to Orlando, Florida for the American Travel Market, but the organizers have cancelled this event. We are still trying to look for an appropriate travel market for North America. However, we are active members of the Africa Travel Association (ATA) which is an association of American tour operators that send tourists to Africa. We hosted the ATA's 25th Congress in 2000 and we have been attending every annual congress for the last five years.

As part of our promotional programme we also invite foreign tour operators and journalists on familiarization tours.

What are your main expectations for the coming 5 years in terms of tourism?

We have, at the moment, an arrival figure of around 160,000 quite an increase from the much lower figures of the past few years but still very low for the potential we have. Our target is to reach 320,000 in 4-5 years. It is an ambitious figure but if the international security situation improves I think we can hit that target - we have the potential and we are doing a lot of promotional work. We believe Ethiopia has three main advantages or opportunities - that is on top of the unique historical, cultural and natural attractions that I talked about. We have a national carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, with a very wide network. Ethiopian Airlines serves about 75-80 destinations, about 25-30 of them within the country, 45-50 outside of Ethiopia. For instance, It serves some 27 destinations in Africa. It is the airlines that flies to more destinations in Africa than any other airline. Hence its motto " Bringing Africa Together." It flies to 6 destinations in Europe, about 6-7 destinations in the Middle East, about 7 in Asia including Beijing and Hong Kong and 2 destinations in North America, that is, Washington D.C. and New York. Not only does it bring Africa together but it also connects Africa to the rest of the world. Ethiopian Airlines has good reputation with 57 years of service and an excellent safety record.

So that is a big asset. Some of my African Colleagues say that they have very good tourism potential, they have the resources, they have good attractions, but the fact that they do not have their own airlines becomes an obstacle. This is one advantage we have - an efficient airline, an airline with a relatively big network.

The second advantage we believe we have is that we are re-entering the world tourism market as a new destination. Everywhere people are talking about and looking for new destinations, exotic destinations, destinations that are off the beaten track. We believe we constitute that kind of a destination. So that is an added advantage for Ethiopia. The third advantage is that Addis Ababa is developing to be a hub. The headquarters of both the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa are in Addis. You could say Addis Ababa is the capital of Africa. We also have a conference centre with excellent facilities coupled with outstanding hotels like the Sheraton Addis ( Luxury Collection) and Addis Ababa Hilton. So more and more conferences are taking place in Addis. That is an advantage we would exploit more and more.

The Government has been spending a lot of money on infrastructural developments that will also support the tourism sector. For instance, the new airport terminal in Addis Ababa and the expansion and upgrading of the airports on the historic route Axum, Lalibela, Gondar, Mekele, Bahr Dar, Dire Dawa as well as Arba Minch in the south. All these airports have new and expanded runways and terminal buildings. We have already installed night flight facilities in all of there airports and they will be commissioned soon. The Government is also putting a lot of money on road construction. For instance, in the coming four years asphalted roads will increase by 100%, the road network as a whole will expand by 25%, Electricity generation will double in four years which will mean twice the domestic demand. We are considering the possibility of electricity export to Djibouti, the Sudan and perhaps Kenya. Telephone lines will expand by over 200% in the coming four years. Although it is a bit difficult to predict for mobile telephones there is a good chance that it will expand by tenfold. All these infrastructural developments will help the tourism sector.

Ethiopia has also opened up this sector for foreign investors. In the past tour operation was a domain réservé for Ethiopians but now foreigners as well can invest in this sector. We are also providing attractive incentives in the form of providing duty free importation facilities for tour operators for importing buses and vans as well as for those who invest in hotels in their importation of construction materials etc..

Do you have a lot of investors coming?

There were a few foreign tour operators who were interested in investing in Ethiopia but as I said earlier until recently this line of business was closed for foreigners. It was reserved for Ethiopians. Now we have liberalized this sector; entry is now possible for foreigners and with the incentive scheme that we have introduced such as duty free importation of buses, vans etc.. I hope foreign tour operators will now be interested to invest in this line of activity. With respect to hotels we are trying to make arrangements for Ethiopians, as well as foreigners who desire to invest in this sector to get land with minimal price. The duty free importation of whatever is needed to build and furnish hotels is also extended to this line of activity and we would hope that investors take note. Already the French Group Accor are making arrangements to build a hotel in Addis. They are in the process of securing land at a favourable price and the incentives introduced recently are, I think, instrumental in coming to this decision on the part of Accor.

Could you tell us about your background, how you became Commissioner ?

I have always worked with the Government. I had my schooling mostly here in Addis Ababa except for one year of high school in the United States as an exchange student. I also completed my under-graduate education at the Haile Selassie I University (then) in Addis Ababa where I graduated in Economics. I did my post-graduate education in the United states where I specialized in economic development and public finance. I worked for several years in the Planning Commission Office in such areas as project evaluation, mobilization of financial resources, tax reform and budgetary allocation. I was also director for national wage policy for a number of years dealing with wage fund formation and regulation, job evaluation and salary scales, minimum wage issues, work organization and payment by results. Since 1997 I was appointed Commissioner for tourism which means I have been in this position for the last six years. This is not an easy sector to manage because tourism deals with several issues; there is also a need to coordinate numerous organizations. But it is a very dynamic and challenging sector. So it is interesting.

What is your message of investors who would like to invest in the tourism sector?

Ethiopia suffers from a negative image; our image is that of drought, famine and civil strife. This is mostly from the experience of the 70's and 80's.

But we have, I believe, a good economic development policy - that of agriculture development-led industrialization strategy. The emphasis , as I said, is on rural development on agriculture, on food security and self-sufficiency. I think we are on the right track and to make this a reality we are engaged on an ambitious programme of capacity building, civil service reform, and devolution of power. Tourism is very important for the success of this development strategy. It will generate the foreign exchange required to finance this effort and will also help alleviate poverty through the employment it generates.

Also the reality in Ethiopia is different from the perception. Therefore, first I would like to tell your readers to forget the image and experience the reality.

I would also like to impress upon the tour operators and other investors to take note of the new incentives we have provided for the tourism sector.