What needs to be done - policy imperatives in Ethiopian tourism

(By Tony Hickey A paper presented at the symposium on Tourism and  National Parks in Ethiopia, held in Gondar 9-10 February 2001)

WIC Feb 16 2001

Ethiopia has for a very long time attracted the discerning traveler. Long before the appearance of the Lonely Planet Guides, visitors extolled its many attractions and wonders, although often such accounts were dismissed by readers in countries throughout the world as fiction – James Bruce is one example of a visitor whose reputation suffered as a result of his Ethiopian travelogues.  

This paper however will take a more recent starting point, the establishment of the Tourist Office in 1961.  The status of the Ethiopian tourism industry from then to current times reflects the varying fortunes and vicissitudes of the Ethiopian state and people. 

Tourist arrivals grew by 12% annually in the period from 1963 to 1974, reaching a figure in that year of 74,000. At that time, the tourism sectors of Kenya and Ethiopia were at approximately the same level of development.

Ethiopia had then actually more to offer than Kenya: both had coastlines, spectacular scenery and abundant wildlife, but only Ethiopia had historic sites and an identity defined by its peoples rather than by colonialism.  (Since then wars, displacement and the multiple effects of a war economy, poor wildlife management systems and the pressures of population growth have brought about a dramatic, but hopefully not totally irreversible decline in Ethiopia's wildlife, impacting negatively on its attractions as a wildlife tourist destination.)

Tourism arrivals registered a sharp dive with the coming of the Derg, and Ethiopia's travails during the Derg years, when the very name of the country became synonymous with war, drought and famine, kept tourism numbers at low levels.

Recovery came in 1991, with the overthrow of the Derg, and until the Eritrean invasion in May 1998 tourism numbers registered an average annual growth of about 3%.

In 1998 and 1999, arrivals fell by about 20%, back to 1991 levels, the main reason being the conflict with Eritrea and the resulting negative travel advice from tourist sending countries to their citizens.  An additional factor, although impossible to quantify, was the reappearance of famine images from Ethiopia in the international media following the food crisis in Gode and the Somali Region generally.   (The growth in conference tourism from 1998-2000, encouraged by the opening of the Sheraton and the ECA Conference Centre masked a greater fall in vacation tourism in 1998-2000.)

Figures for 2000 show a small recovery, with arrivals reaching a figure of 105,000, or a little over 92% of the figures for 1997.   Assuming that the peace holds, and barring any major disasters, it can be predicted that tourism arrivals will continue to improve.

These ups and downs demonstrate the sensitivity of tourism as an industry to political shocks and upsets, but the ability of Ethiopia's tourism industry to recover each time also demonstrates the continuing demand for Ethiopia's tourist products, which may be broadly categorised as follows: History and culture; Trekking and climbing; Ornithology; "Ethnic tourism" - experiencing at close hand the cultures of different peoples; Wildlife; scenery and nature and Hunting.

Ethiopia tourist products are mainly  "specific" rather than  "generic"   – this means those characteristics which attract visitors to Ethiopia cannot be easily substituted with those of another destination. 

Visitors who come for Ethiopia's Historic Route, for scenery such as found in the Simien or Bale Mountains, for the ethnic diversity found along the Omo Valley, or for Ethiopia's bio-diversity generally, are not going to find these products elsewhere.  In times of trouble they may postpone their visit, but if they want to savour these products, they will be back.

Those countries with a generic tourist product, such as beaches or wildlife, when they suffer political upsets or other negative developments, buyers can shift elsewhere, and once stability and the status quo ante is restored, there is no guarantee that they will return.

The specific nature of Ethiopia's tourist products has important policy implications, and I will return to this point later.

The change of government in 1991, and the new approach it heralded to issues of economic and political development, should have opened the debate for a new tourism policy.   Tourism development in the Imperial period, though in many ways commercially successful, did not seek to involve host communities in either tourism planning or a share of tourist income. 

As for the Derg, it initially felt that most tourists were potential spies and foreign agents, and though East German advisors later persuaded the regime that tourism could generate much needed foreign currency, its heart was not really in it – as a sector, tourism was considered peripheral to the main sectors such as agriculture and industry.  Towards the end the Derg did implement some liberalisation measures, the monopoly of NTO was loosened and private tour companies were allowed to establish themselves, but the nature of the regime meant that open debate about the future of Ethiopia's tourism industry was not possible.

But although much has been achieved in the sector since 1991, I believe that Ethiopia still does not have a tourism development policy.  Certainly, there has not been a widespread debate about the implications of tourism development for society as a whole, and host communities are generally still not involved in tourism planning or a share of tourism income.

Strategies to attract tourists, infrastructural improvements on popular tourist circuits, opening of regional tourism bureaux, attendance at trade fairs and better publicity for the sector, while all very important, do not in themselves constitute a policy for tourism development. 

In my view, tourism policy formation requires the following steps:

The development of an ideological critique, analysis and understanding of tourism as a global industry. This can be done by drawing on a substantial body of literature published by a variety of groups, both in the developed and developing world, who adopt a cautious and critical position vis a vis the claims of the transnational corporations involved in tourism and the bodies and institutions which represent them. As in other economic sectors, the globalisation agenda for tourism development will not necessarily benefit Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people, since the interests of the international tourism industry are inevitably about numbers and profits, rather than cultural and environmental preservation and sustainability.

The undertaking of a critical study of tourism development in Ethiopia since its inception in the 1960s, looking at past and present policies, the role of the Tourism Commission, public and private interventions in the sector and their effectiveness.

Based on these analyses and understanding, the development of a strategy for tourism development in Ethiopia, which has as its primary goal the maximisation of benefits to the hosts, the people of Ethiopia, rather than meeting the interests of the consumers, whether international or domestic. (The Tourism Master Plan drawn up in 1995 by the Italian consulting company, Tourconsult, is primarily concerned with the latter.) Of course, in order to develop a marketable tourist product, the issue of how the interests of the consumers should be met has to be considered, but this should be secondary to the primary goal, and where there is a contradiction, where the interests of consumers conflict with long term national interests, on socio-economic, environmental or cultural grounds, the interests of the consumers should be set aside.

Once the elements of such a strategy have been identified, a move can then be made towards identifying the particular policies which are necessary to ensure the successful implementation of the strategy.

Concurrent with these steps, there should be a deliberate attempt to broaden the debate, to involve wide sectors of society and particularly host communities.  (How this can be done practically, through the formation of a Tourism Council, I will return to shortly.)  A broad debate is necessary because of the pervasive, multi sectoral effects of the tourism industry, and the implications tourism development has for agriculture, trade and industry, transport and communications, and the setting of development priorities in these areas, and last but not least the environment and the cultural integrity of the country. 

The potentially damaging aspects of tourism development underlines the need for an ideological or political as opposed to an economic critique of tourism, when drawing up strategies for developing tourism as a national industry.   "Tourism is a smokeless industry" is a catchy phrase, but ultimately meaningless – the means of transportation used by tourists, and the industries that produce the goods they consume, are just as polluting as those used by everyone else.

Examples throughout the world demonstrate how much damage unplanned and uncontrolled tourism development can do.

In the less developed countries, tourism has generally been characterised by the expatriation of profit, or "foreign exchange leakage", which is set to increase under pressure from the Word Trade Organisation on developing countries to "liberalise" their service sectors.   While much mention is made of a country's gross receipts from tourism, very little is said about net receipts.

To understand how foreign exchange leakage occurs, we can look at the typical components of a tour: international flight (about 30% of the cost of a holiday) - who owns the airline?  Tour company selling the package, where is it located?  Local tour company handling the tour, who owns it?  Hotels where tourists stay, who owns them?  In order to run the tour and for the tourists' consumption, how much does the country have to import?   (For example: vehicles, spare parts, fuel; furniture and equipment for hotels and camping; imported foodstuffs and drinks.) 

When a tourist books his holiday with a foreign company, flies in on a foreign airline, stays at a foreign owned hotel, has his tour handled by the local branch of a foreign company, and needs a lot of imported goods while in country, one can imagine that the net receipts to the host country are very small, and consist of taxes, payment for some local foodstuffs and beverages, salaries (many of the tourism jobs in the developing countries tend to be low paid and seasonal), souvenirs and tips.  Small pickings indeed.

Then there is the issue of distorted development - too often tourism is not seen as an integral part of the rest of the economy.  Precious funds are allocated to tourism projects, such as the development of tourism related infrastructure - airports, roads, water supply - at the expense of other projects which might be of direct benefit to local communities, even at the expense of industrial development projects which could generate greater benefits for the country as a whole.  (Some studies made in India and Sri Lanka demonstrate that the amount of money required to create jobs in tourism is greater than that required to create jobs in certain industrial sectors.)

Tourism has caused environmental degradation in countries like Nepal for example, where forests are being depleted to provide fuel for trekkers - and it should be pointed out here that an estimated 80% of tourism receipts for Nepal find their way out of the country. 

A whole protest movement has grown up in South East Asian countries against "golf tourism" - scarce water resources have been diverted away from peasant agriculture and from local consumption to slake the thirsty needs of golf greens. (A golf course consumes as much water as a village of 8000 people.)  Pesticides and sprays required to maintain the pristine appearance of golf courses have damaged both the environment and health of host communities.

Beach hotels discharge effluent into the sea, wiping out marine life and often the livelihoods of local fishermen.  In many countries, beach resort development has even closed off the beaches and the sea itself to local communities 

Then there is the cultural degradation, particularly in Asian countries where a vast sex industry has been spawned to cater for sex tourists.  This phenomenon needs no amplification or explanation, but tourism also has other less dramatic but also negative cultural impacts, inevitable when a materialist and individualist culture comes into sudden contact with a more traditional and perhaps conservative culture, which draws its legitimacy from the community and a belief in community values.  Even on the artistic level culturally, how often are ancient dances or ceremonies standardised, gift wrapped and condensed into a 5 minute performance over dinner in the restaurants of tourist hotels? 

Here in Ethiopia, we have seen the growth of a "begging industry" in areas of tourist interest - children whose fathers and mothers would have been beaten for accepting, let alone soliciting, money from relatives, now treat begging as routine, and ask visitors for pens and books, shoes, clothes and of course, money.  Children in Addis Ababa and elsewhere routinely greet ferengi with cries of "Money, money!" In Bahir Dar children have developed the concept of "visiting cards" – they write their names and addresses on small pieces of paper which are given to tourists, who are then asked to send money, clothes and books to enable the children to continue with their education.  (Of course, tourism alone is not responsible for this development – the growth of the "aid industry" over the last few decades has undermined traditional concepts of self-reliance, and promoted the idea of the ferengi as distributors of largesse.)

As the Indian commentator on tourism, Cecil Rajendra, has written: "Because the raw material of the tourist industry is flesh and blood, people and their cultures, its long term effect on a country whose main income is derived from tourism can be devastating.  For unlike primary products such as coffee or cocoa, tin or rubber, or even oil, that can be replaced in the event of depletion with synthetic substitutes, a people or culture once exploited and subverted to the needs of the tourism industry can never be replaced."

The development of an Ethiopia oriented tourism policy, based on an ideological critique and understanding of tourism as a global industry, has not happened for the reasons set out below.

In 1991 and to date, tourism development was not and is not seen as a "priority", when compared to sectors such as agriculture and industry, and when set against problems such as food shortages, drought and the Eritrean aggression. 

The tourism sector has not lobbied the government effectively for change – the Tourism Commission has lacked the muscle, while the private sector has been fragmented and disorganised.

Wrongly, tourism has been seen as a sector distinct from and independent of other sectors such as agriculture, industry, transport and communication, rather than an integral part of the economy as a whole.

The World Travel and Tourism Council has this to say about the multi sectoral aspect of tourism:  "The consumer decides on a trip for business or leisure, targeting a destination rather than a product.  There is no large single transaction, but a wide range of purchases of services and goods, for transport, accommodation, food and beverages, admission to attractions, gifts and souvenirs.  The purchases occur at different times and locations. Similarly there are indirect beneficiaries - the suppliers of goods and services to each of the direct recipients of the traveler's spending.  They are spread throughout the economy - telecommunications for messages, agriculture for meals, construction for roads and imports, financial services for cash or credit and government support at borders and parks."

The Australian National Tourism Strategy lists these component elements of Travel and Tourism: "Accommodation – hotels/resorts, motels, hostels, caravans, camping. Transportation - airlines, cruise ships, rail, car rental, buses, coaches.  Attractions - man made and natural.  Food and beverage - restaurants, fast food, wine merchants.  Travel Agencies.  Tour companies.  Souvenirs.  Luggage.  Hotel/Restaurant suppliers.  Taxi services.  Cameras and film.  Maps, travel books.  Shopping malls.  Service stations.  Sporting events.  Banking services.  Reservation systems. Auto clubs.  Entertainment/Arts venues.  Museums and Historical sites.  Construction/Real Estate. Distillers/Brewers/bottlers. Auto and aircraft manufacturers.  Motor fuel producers.  Clothing manufacturers.  Communications networks.  Education/training institutes.  Recreation and sporting equipment.  Food producers. Advertising media.  Cartographers/printers."

This demonstrates the catalytic  "flow through" effect on other industries, whose own production is directly stimulated by Travel and Tourism demand. 

Of course, Ethiopia does not produce all the goods listed above, nor provide all the services.  But a tourism policy which had as its goal the maximisation of benefits for the country and host communities, could encourage the following: use of locally available materials and designs in the building of hotels, of local designs and crafts in the furnishing of hotels, growing locally the food that the hotel guests will consume, and producing locally the equipment they need – such as tents, boats, trekking materials.

This is actually what the visitor to Ethiopia wants – he or she is seeking a specific cultural experience (and this brings us back to the policy implications of Ethiopia's specific tourist product), rather than what they can easily experience back in their own countries, culturally anonymous and standardised accommodation.  Those hotel builders who boast that their furniture is imported from abroad are missing the point: it might impress them, but will not impress the visitor, who is confronted with the familiar rather than the exotic and unusual.

For those engaged in developing an Ethiopia centred tourism policy, I see three main challenges:  One, how to retain control of the definition of Ethiopia's tourist product, and not to let this pass to buyers.  Ethiopia's tourist attractions are not like coffee, and can be marketed on Ethiopia's terms.  This means stressing Ethiopia's specificity, and not getting caught up in the rush to globalised standardization. The practical implications for policy makers, of the realization that Ethiopia's interests are best served by emphasizing its specificity, would be for example: insisting that tourist hotels incorporate aspects of Ethiopian culture in their décor and furnishing (if not actual design), and preserving the integrity of strategic sites by not allowing insensitive developments – such as a high rise next to the Axum obelisks or a MacDonalds in Lalibela. 

Two, how to minimise foreign exchange "leakage", and ensure that as much of tourism receipts as possible remain in country. 

Three, how to ensure leakage of tourism receipts to host communities.

I have stressed the need for a broad, nation wide debate, and without wanting to pre-empt either the results of the debate or the recommendations of the policy makers, let me now move to policy specifics, and provide some suggestions about what the components for an Ethiopia centred tourism policy might be.  Firstly I will deal with the national issues, and then move to specific reforms we in the private sector are seeking.

1.  Consulting stakeholders and the public

I put this first, because it needs to start immediately – in fact we can say that this symposium, with participants from all over the country and with excerpts to be shown on national TV, is a very valuable contribution to the process.  It should be said that we in the tourism sector, government and private, have been late in organizing such a symposium.

For several years we have talked about establishing a Tourism Council.  We are still talking about it.  Ethiopia is not short of tourism experts – they can be found in the Tourism Commission, in Ethiopian Airlines, in the Tour and Travel Agents Association, in the Hoteliers Association, in academia and the media.  What has not happened so far is the joint pooling of this expertise.  A Tourism Council would do just that, and bring together the bodies mentioned above, other stake holders and all those involved in the sector, such as: representatives from Ethiopian industry, the banks, insurance companies, Customs and Immigration, Police and Security, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Supreme Islamic Council, indigenous NGOs and development agencies and environmentalists.

Working with the Tourism Commission and the Regional Bureaux, the Tourism Council should consider means of bringing the debate to the people: the Ethiopian public as a whole and host communities in particular need to know more about tourism and tourists – we can say that it is their democratic right.  Tourism need to be demystified, people should be aware why tourists come to visit their country, what attracts them and what they are seeking.  Host communities need to explore how they can benefit from tourism on a sustainable basis.  At this moment, tour operators like myself are sending visitors to the Omo Valley – the fundamental attraction is the people of the area, whose participation economically is basically confined to the sale of artifacts and collecting money for photographs. 

So the Tourism Council should plan for measures to raise issues of tourism development at the local level and among the general public, and to establish mechanisms for efficient local consultation and feedback at different levels - to the government, to the private sector and to local communities.  There could be outreach programmes to schools, with tour guides explaining the nature of their work, or an EAL official explaining the value of the sector to the national economy.

2.  Establish the carrying capacity of Ethiopia's major sites and institute Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs)

Ethiopia must not get caught up in the numbers' game - "let us double tourist numbers in five years" - as many countries have tried to do.  Before setting numerical targets we need to know how many visitors the sites can support.  The Ethiopian Tourism Commission therefore should draw up a proposal to seek assistance (from the European Commission or UNDP) in framing appropriate methodologies to establish carrying capacities, initially in the most visited sites, and terms for EIAs.

Countries throughout the world committed to ensure the sustainability of sites ranging from historic monuments to churches and to game parks have established the carrying capacity of those sites, which then provides a guide for planners.  If the sustainability of a site means a maximum of 100 visitors a day, there is clearly no need to build a hotel with 300 rooms, or 4 hotels with 50 rooms each.

When Egypt, for example, discovers a new pharaonic site, the relevant government ministries and departments quickly move to establish first whether it should be opened to visitors at all, and then how many visitors can be allowed in per day.  To help them with that decision for example, they can refer to precise formulae which determine how much moisture is produced by human breath in confined spaces and how much of that condenses on walls and paintings.  In developed countries, even the effect on foundations and walls of the vibration of passing traffic is calculated and made a factor in road planning.  

The number of visitors to Ethiopia's historic sites and natural attractions cannot simply be left to the market to determine, not if tourism to these places is to be sustainable in the long term, the integrity of the sites protected and the long term interests of the local communities safeguarded.

(While EIAs are still being developed and tested, a European Community Council Directive of 1985 stipulates that EIAs should include a project's direct and indirect impact on human beings, flora and fauna, soil, water, air, climate and landscape, the interaction between these factors and material assets and cultural heritage.)

3.  Integrating tourism into planning

The Tourism Commission, working with other departments of government should produce a report indicating how tourism can be integrated into both national and regional plans.

Integrating tourism with other sectors rests on long term strategic planning and EIAs.  The government has a 5 Year Plan, and once studies on carrying capacities and EIAs have been made, there will be more information about how sectors like agriculture and local industry can benefit from the tourism sector. 

Through planning and information to local investors, development associations etc, local agriculture and industry can provide needed inputs in foodstuffs, transport, equipment, crafts etc.   (Examples: boat building in Bahir Dar, saddle making and camping equipment in Debark for trekking in the Simien National Park, foodstuffs in Lalibela - much of the food served in the hotels there is brought from Dessie, transport and care hire from the airports of Jinka or Arba Minch, proper camp sites and facilities in the Omo Valley.)

Plans to extend power and water supply to local communities could be undermined by a sudden increase in tourist numbers, since traditional tourist facilities are wasteful of both.   (Under European planning regulations, a tourist is said to need more than 100 litres per day, or the consumption of several families in rural Ethiopia.)  A spokesperson for the Water and Sewage Department in Axum spoke some years ago of the severe water shortage facing the town's 30,000 inhabitants: the capacity of the deep wells that have been serving Axum has dropped from 1.8 million litres per day to 524,000 litres, and the daily quota per inhabitant has fallen from 30 litres to 5.4 litres.  In all sites visited by tourists (Gondar and Lalibela also face severe water shortages) there has to be a projection of water needs for an increased tourist population as well as a naturally increasing local population. Strategies can be devised to limit over consumption, for recycling and efficient waste disposal - new developments would be required to meet certain standards. Such strategies have been devised in other African countries - the knowledge is there and could be sought for example from South Africa, a popular tourist destination, which has offered assistance to develop Ethiopian tourism and which has had a lot of experience in dealing with droughts and water conservation. (Hotels in Southern Africa have notices up in the bathrooms informing visitors of water shortages, and ways that water can be conserved, such as not leaving the water running while brushing one's teeth - no such notice can be found in Ethiopian hotels, and visitors taking an evening shower in state sector hotels in Gondar and Lalibela  - water is usually not available in the day time - are told to let the water run for 10 minutes until it warms up.)

Improvement in road access to tourist sites should be related to the transport needs of local communities and local industry, and the environmental impact assessed.  The road constructed road through the southern part of the Simien National Park for example is said to have a negative impact on the environment and effectively helps undercut employment possibilities in Debark at the entrance to the park - visitors can now drive straight in by road, and dispense with the need for hiring mules, muleteers and porters from Debark.

The report could be drawn up by economists, planners and social scientists, with representatives from the Universities and academia, federal and regional government and the business sector.  It could concentrate on the sites where tourism development was already happening, with further reports in the future on potential sites.

4.  Development of regulatory powers

How and by who they will be exercised is a matter for constitutional lawyers, but armed with the data provided by the studies on carrying capacities, EIAs, and tourism and planning, there should be powers to modify or prevent inappropriate tourism development, and conversely to encourage appropriate development with tax breaks and incentives.

Inappropriate development plans would be those which are wasteful of natural resources (particularly in areas where resources are scarce), which are not based on proper feasibility studies and which have a negative impact on the natural or social environment and which do not meet aesthetic standards.

Appropriate development plans would be those which had efficient water management systems (including recycling), which put something back into the environment (through tree planting for example), which created local employment, and the design of which would not clash or stick out but would blend with the local environment.

Over the last decade many private sector developers, reluctant to pay for feasibility studies or for the input of skilled and experienced architects and planners, have put up some ugly buildings which do not meet the needs or the taste of the visitors they were supposed to attract.  Proper feasibility studies investigate the profile of the typical visitor or client for the facility, which in turn determines the nature of the facility.  Tourists who book a tour on the Historic Route do not need tennis or volley ball courts, swimming pools or discos, and would rather stay in a building which reflected local building traditions (but with good sanitation, toilets and bathrooms) than something  "modern" with lots of concrete and glass. 

In Ethiopia's most prestigious sites, developers should not be able to build as they like.  The requirement to submit plans to a committee which would look at different factors would help curtail inappropriate projects, protect sites and save scarce capital and material resources.  The committee would be composed of people with specific knowledge or experience, in areas such as land use, power and water supply, business and banking, art and design, and representatives of community interests. 

The Tourism Commission needs to propose changes about licensing new operators, giving more weight and value to skills, experience and proficiency.  Strong measures should be taken against illegal operators; legal operators cannot compete with people who pay no taxes or with the car rental rates of some NGOs, which pay neither taxes nor customs duties.  Illegal operators with no long term market to worry about, are more likely to provide tourists with the kind of service which discourages future visits and spoils the country's name.

5.  Protection of the cultural heritage

 Ethiopia's historic and cultural heritage is being stolen at such a rate that within a decade there may be little left for visitors to see.   We should not simply react after each theft, closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, as happened with the theft by a priest of the cross of King Lalibela.  We need proactive measures and policies.   Monasteries often report fires have destroyed priceless manuscripts, while everybody knows that these fires are staged to cover the prior theft and sale of these manuscripts.  We need to secure national treasures, which we should remember means treasures owned by the nation, and this means their security being taken out of the hands of individuals.  A proactive strategy would include increasing awareness on national heritage issues among local communities - an aware community is a very good watchdog - and clear information to visitors on what they can and cannot buy.  This information could be conveyed on visa applications, at the airport and at the sites themselves. The strategy would include checks on souvenir shops which offer buyers "something special I keep out the back".

Regional authorities have been carrying out audits of treasures, but here again there should be a specialist committee vested with executive powers, which would have the power to impose security measures on sites housing national treasures, whoever was the owner of those sites.

The same committee would look at other measures, such as regular audits of treasures, storage and safekeeping, and developing the kind of proactive strategies mentioned above.

6.   Protection of the natural heritage

A lot of tourist promotional literature claims that Ethiopia has wild life parks the equal of any in east Africa.  We should stop saying this and face up to facts – in many of Ethiopia's parks domestic animals – cattle, sheep, goats and camels dominate the scenery. 

In the early 90s hunting was banned in an attempt to restore Ethiopia's wildlife. It should be acknowledged that it is not professional hunters and their clients who have destroyed wild life.  The fall in wild life numbers have come about through the competing claims between wild life and man, and the failure of successive governments to mediate some kind of compromise between these claims. 

With the parks, we need to decide whether we want them, and if we decide we do, take the necessary executive action.  I have seen a BBC video, made in 1969, raising the issue of settlement in the Simien National Park.  In November 1999 I attended a workshop here in Gondar in which the same issues were discussed.  Farming and livestock rearing is not a sustainable option for the Simien National Park, but will if uncontrolled make the park no longer worth visiting, which would constitute a loss to the region, the country and the world of a priceless natural heritage, and of a valuable source of foreign exchange and income for host communities, the region and the country as a whole.

Of course conditions vary from park to park, in terms of ecological degradation and settlement – there is no "fit for all" solution.

Not only for the parks, but for the country as a whole, we need to step up efforts to develop an environment and wildlife policy which is sustainable and takes into account the needs of local communities.  As stated, there is no easy formula for this, but the seriousness of the dangers facing national parks, forests and places of scenic beauty merits attention at the highest levels regionally and nationally.  A lesson could be learnt from South Africa - 30 years ago wildlife numbers were low, since then through the intervention of the private sector and the establishment of private game reserves numbers have made a dramatic recovery.  If we are to look at a regeneration of Ethiopia's wildlife, people will have to make money out of it.

7.   Lobby for measures to help the domestic tourism sector

Ethiopia's tourist sector is almost totally in local hands, the Sheraton being the only notable exception and Sheik Mohammed al-Amoudi is considered by many, with good reason, to be more or less a local investor. But this may not be the case forever – the pressure on Ethiopia from institutions like the IMF and from developed countries could force Ethiopia to fully open up its tourism sector to foreign companies.

Now is the time to enable domestic companies engaged in tourism to develop a strong base, and this can be done through tax incentives and tax breaks to tour companies which after all directly earn foreign currency just as coffee exporters do for example. Current government policies do not advantage or help the tour operator.  While other industries can import items needed for business duty free or at reduced tax rates, tour operators pay full rates on the goods they need to run their businesses and earn foreign currency for the country: tourism is impossible without vehicles, and transport costs are invariably one of the highest cost components in any tour. Unlike the position in competitor countries, where tour operators are entitled to concessionary customs tariffs, Ethiopian tour operators pay more than 200% duty on vehicles.  When a Landcruiser costs more than 700,000 birr, vehicle rental charges have to be set at a high rate to enable the purchasers to recoup their investment.  (This is particularly true when one considers the state of Ethiopia's roads, which shorten the working life of vehicles.)

There are similarly punitive customs duties on other essential tourist sector items, such as tents and camping equipment.

Promises made for at least 6 years that changes would be made in the law have failed to materialise.  Reduced customs duties for tour vehicles was the case in Ethiopia during the Emperor's time and is the case now among other countries in Africa, with which Ethiopia has to compete.

In general, the tax regime is unfavourable: for example sales tax at 12.5%, soon to be raised to 15%, is levied on what the operator receives from the tourist, even though many of the components of the package such as hotel accommodation and domestic flights are already taxed at the point of sale.  This creates the absurd anomaly whereby it is cheaper for visitors to book flights and accommodation themselves, since the operator has to charge higher rates to cover the tax liability.

8. Facilitating the arrival of visitors

Visitors to Ethiopia are effectively treated with suspicion about their intentions. Those citizens of foreign countries living outside the capital, where the Ethiopian Embassy if it exists would be located, have to mail their passports to the Embassy to obtain visas.  Where there is no Ethiopian Embassy, they either have to apply to an Embassy located in a neighbouring country, or contact a tour operator in Ethiopia to apply to the Immigration Department on their behalf.

Again, competitor countries do not erect these obstacles, but allow citizens of tourist sending countries to obtain visitors' visas on arrival.

Long lines at the customs check points provide an unwelcome impression for visitors, particularly after a long flight from Europe and the USA.  Green and Red channels are now the rule in most countries, and we find no reason why the system cannot be implemented in Ethiopia.

9.   Greater efficiency in the banking sector - acceptance of credit card and improved banking facilities

Although it is a fact that most travellers chose to carry cards rather than cash, Ethiopia is still largely a "no go area" for cardholders.  Visitors cannot pay for most services by card, and cannot use their cards to draw cash at banks.  They even have a hard time paying with travellers cheques.  (Changing cash is in itself usually a lengthy procedure.)

If other countries with less developed banking systems than Ethiopia are able to devise systems whereby cards and travellers cheques are easily accepted, it cannot be beyond the capacity of Ethiopia's banking system to install a system which all the evidence world wide indicates allows visitors to spend more money.

10.  Better training for those in the sector

The sector needs more skilled and trained personnel – Japanese speaking guides for example, guides with a good knowledge of birds, flowers and plants, in addition to knowledge about culture, history and historic sites.

The project to turn the Genet Hotel in Addis Ababa into a tourism and hotel training college will undoubtedly make a valuable contribution, but it needs to be kicked into gear. 

11.  Training and orientation for government employees involved in the sector.

There is a need for more training and orientation of those state sector employees  police, immigration and security officials  who deal with tourists. 

We need to tackle "camera phobia" in a more organized manner.  Over the last 5 years, several police commissioners, including the Federal Commissioner, have issued instructions that tourists taking photos of non-military installations should not be harassed.  However, it is clear that this information has not always filtered down to the ordinary policeman or women on the street. The Tourism Commission or Tourism Council should organize regional workshops for police and related personnel, which would explore the nature of tourism, why people come to Ethiopia, and what they find interesting or fascinating.  People who take photos of a man plowing with an ox are not attempting to capture on film the backwardness of Ethiopia, but are recording elements of pre-industrial society, which can no longer be seen in their own countries. 

Tourists taking photos, in an age of developed camera and satellite technology cannot seriously be seen as a security threat: for those interested in spying, satellite photos can be bought of such resolution that one could almost count the hairs on a person's head, or the buttons on a shirt. Anyone with a zoom camera on the upper floors of the Hilton or Sheraton, or from Mount Entoto, can photograph the whole of Addis Ababa.

This antipathy to cameras does not only date from the Derg period, there seems to be a fundamental and deep rooted suspicion of people carrying cameras, that they are taking photos of Ethiopia's sites which they will later sell for huge amounts of money.  This again is nonsense.  Most of the amateur photos taken by tourists are worthless, and are simply shown to family and friends, thereby actually promoting the country. 

Tourism is essentially about recording memories, if we want a tourism industry harassment by police of tourists carrying cameras and taking photos must stop, and charges for photography, other than those for professional film crews, should be scrapped.  

There has been a great improvement in recent years in terms of intrusive airport security, particularly with the introduction of automatic sensors and scanners.  This needs to be consolidated. 

12.  Improving research methods

The Tourism Commission needs to institute research into all aspects of the impact on tourism, including anticipating the impact of tourism, drawing on modern data collection methodology as well as local experience and observation.  In fact the expertise is there, what is lacking is the funding to implement a full data collection. Current statistics are drawn from people arriving at Addis Ababa airport, those staying in government hotels or using the service of the state sector NTO, and entrance fee receipts at historic sites.  While such data provides very good indicators, it is incomplete.   Private sector hotels and tour operators could be required to assist in the collection of data, and more precise information could be sought about what kind of people (economic and educational background) visit Ethiopia, why they come and what their images and expectations are.

To help raise consciousness about the environmental or socio-economic aspects of tourism development, the Commission should commission research papers on topics such as "Lalibela - how many visitors can it support?"  "How can local communities benefit from tourism development?"  "Is investment in tourism likely to bring a good return?"  These papers would be published in the press and made widely available to regional planners.

In concluding, I would like to reiterate my belief that the absence of an ideological critique of tourism development has created a kind of vacuum at the heart of tourism policy - unless some parameters are set the debate on tourism development will continue to be confined to discussions on how to boost visitor numbers and better promote Ethiopia's image.  This is putting the cart before the horse – before worrying about how many people we will invite to the party, we need to determine for whose benefit the party is being held.

Tony Hickey

General Manager

Village Ethiopia

January, 2001