International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management

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Opportunities to Enhance Tourism Industry Development: Gambella People’s National Regional State, South West Ethiopia

Received: 22 July 2019    Accepted: 18 August 2019    Published: 21 November 2019
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Abstract

Tourism has been emerged as one of the effective tools in eradicating poverty. Ethiopia has huge tourism potentials like natural, non-natural, historical and cultural resources. Gambella Region is one of the attractive tourismdestinations located at South West of Ethiopia. But, its tourism industry development is in infant stage. Nonetheless, limited study has carried out on identifying opportunities. Hence, the main objective of this study was identifying opportunities to enhance tourism industry development in the Region. To do so, key informants from three zones, five regional offices and thirteen woredas has purposively selected based on the defined criteria. Altogether, 103 key informants were interviewed besides to field observation. The collected firsthand data were edited, categorized, arranged and organized and encoded into SPSS software version 20. Qualitative data was being analyzed in meaningful content description whereas quantitative data was being analyzed in numerical values. Findings of this study revealed that recruiting trained human power, organizing local tour guide associations, making linkage with tour operators, developing tourist guidebook, installing tourist information centers, enhancing promotion and marketing of tourism destinations, information update, improving infrastructures development, and installing accommodation deliverers are the major opportunities to enhance tourism industry development in the Region.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijhtm.20190302.11
Published in International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management (Volume 3, Issue 2, December 2019)
Page(s) 18-24
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Tourism, Tourism Industry, Opportunities, Gambella Region

References
[1] United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (2012). Annual Report, Madrid, Spain.
[2] United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (2013). Tourism and Poverty Alleviation, Madrid, Spain.
[3] World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) (2015) Travel and Tourism Economic Impacts.
[4] World Bank (2012). Ethiopia’s Tourism Sector: Strategic Paths to Competitiveness and Job Creation. World Bank, Washington DC.
[5] Pratt S (2010). Economic Linkages and Impacts across the Tourism Area Life Cycle. University of the South Pacific, Fiji.
[6] United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (2015). World Tourism Barometer, Vol. 13. UNWTO, Madrid, Spain.
[7] Edgell DL and Swanson JR (2013). Tourism Policy and Planning: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, 2nd Ed. Routledge, London.
[8] Rachel D and Richard B (2009). Barriers to Implementing Sustainable Tourism Policy in Mass Tourism Destinations. Tourismos: An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism: Volume 5, Number 1, spring 2010, pp. 35-53. http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25162/
[9] Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCT) (2012). Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ethiopia’s Tourism Sector: Strategic Paths to Competitiveness and Job Creation News Letter No I, (2009). Awash National Park, Ethiopia, 2012.
[10] Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCT) (2013). International Visitors’ Exit Survey: Phase I. MoCT, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
[11] Tadesse Kidane-Mariam (2015). Ethiopia: Opportunities and Challenges of Tourism Development in the Addis Ababa - upper Rift Valley Corridor, Department of Geography, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, USA.
[12] Binayew TG and Yiheyis AY (2016). Sustainable ecotourism potentials and its challenges in Ethiopia: The Awash National Park in Focus. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, 2 (4): 41-49.
[13] Selemon Thomas and Alemken Berihun (2019). Unexplored Natural Tourism Potentials: Gambella People’s National Regional State, South West Ethiopia. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications: Vol. 9 (5). DOI: 10.29322/IJSRP.9.05.2019.p8940. Pp. 334–347.
[14] Selemon Thomas and Alemken Berihun (2019). Factors Hindering Tourism Industry Development: Gambella People’s National Regional State, South West Ethiopia. Global Journal of Management and Business Research: (F) Real Estate, Event and Tourism Management. Vol. 19 (1) Version 1.0.
[15] Lema E, Tefera J, Fikiru M and Adanech A (2017). Assessment of Plant Diversity and Structural Analysis of Majang Forest Biosphere Reserve, Majang Zone, Gambella Regional State, Southwest Ethiopia. MELCA-Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
[16] Mathewos M (2017). Analysis and Detection of Land Use and Land Cover Changes Using Remote Sensing Technology on the Landscape of Majang Zone, Gambella Region. MELCA-Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
[17] Wondachew M and Muchie N (2017). Assessment of Traditional Farming andNatural resource Management Practices in Majang Forest Biosphere Reserve, Southwest Ethiopia. MELCA-Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
[18] Central Statistical Authority (CSA) (2007). The 2007 Population and Housing Census for Ethiopia. Results at country level, statistical report, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Author Information
  • Department of Wildlife and Ecotourism Management, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gambella University, Gambella, Ethiopia

  • Department of Wildlife and Ecotourism Management, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gambella University, Gambella, Ethiopia

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  • APA Style

    Selemon Thomas Fakana, Alemken Berihun Mengist. (2019). Opportunities to Enhance Tourism Industry Development: Gambella People’s National Regional State, South West Ethiopia. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, 3(2), 18-24. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijhtm.20190302.11

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    ACS Style

    Selemon Thomas Fakana; Alemken Berihun Mengist. Opportunities to Enhance Tourism Industry Development: Gambella People’s National Regional State, South West Ethiopia. Int. J. Hosp. Tour. Manag. 2019, 3(2), 18-24. doi: 10.11648/j.ijhtm.20190302.11

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    AMA Style

    Selemon Thomas Fakana, Alemken Berihun Mengist. Opportunities to Enhance Tourism Industry Development: Gambella People’s National Regional State, South West Ethiopia. Int J Hosp Tour Manag. 2019;3(2):18-24. doi: 10.11648/j.ijhtm.20190302.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijhtm.20190302.11,
      author = {Selemon Thomas Fakana and Alemken Berihun Mengist},
      title = {Opportunities to Enhance Tourism Industry Development: Gambella People’s National Regional State, South West Ethiopia},
      journal = {International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management},
      volume = {3},
      number = {2},
      pages = {18-24},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijhtm.20190302.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijhtm.20190302.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijhtm.20190302.11},
      abstract = {Tourism has been emerged as one of the effective tools in eradicating poverty. Ethiopia has huge tourism potentials like natural, non-natural, historical and cultural resources. Gambella Region is one of the attractive tourismdestinations located at South West of Ethiopia. But, its tourism industry development is in infant stage. Nonetheless, limited study has carried out on identifying opportunities. Hence, the main objective of this study was identifying opportunities to enhance tourism industry development in the Region. To do so, key informants from three zones, five regional offices and thirteen woredas has purposively selected based on the defined criteria. Altogether, 103 key informants were interviewed besides to field observation. The collected firsthand data were edited, categorized, arranged and organized and encoded into SPSS software version 20. Qualitative data was being analyzed in meaningful content description whereas quantitative data was being analyzed in numerical values. Findings of this study revealed that recruiting trained human power, organizing local tour guide associations, making linkage with tour operators, developing tourist guidebook, installing tourist information centers, enhancing promotion and marketing of tourism destinations, information update, improving infrastructures development, and installing accommodation deliverers are the major opportunities to enhance tourism industry development in the Region.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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    AU  - Alemken Berihun Mengist
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    AB  - Tourism has been emerged as one of the effective tools in eradicating poverty. Ethiopia has huge tourism potentials like natural, non-natural, historical and cultural resources. Gambella Region is one of the attractive tourismdestinations located at South West of Ethiopia. But, its tourism industry development is in infant stage. Nonetheless, limited study has carried out on identifying opportunities. Hence, the main objective of this study was identifying opportunities to enhance tourism industry development in the Region. To do so, key informants from three zones, five regional offices and thirteen woredas has purposively selected based on the defined criteria. Altogether, 103 key informants were interviewed besides to field observation. The collected firsthand data were edited, categorized, arranged and organized and encoded into SPSS software version 20. Qualitative data was being analyzed in meaningful content description whereas quantitative data was being analyzed in numerical values. Findings of this study revealed that recruiting trained human power, organizing local tour guide associations, making linkage with tour operators, developing tourist guidebook, installing tourist information centers, enhancing promotion and marketing of tourism destinations, information update, improving infrastructures development, and installing accommodation deliverers are the major opportunities to enhance tourism industry development in the Region.
    VL  - 3
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