Ethiopia: unrest causing tourism crisis

ESAT News (October 31, 2016)

Ethiopian tourism minister contradicted the official narrative on the non effect of the state of emergency by admitting that the industry has been seriously derailed following the marshall law.

The minister, Ayisha Mohammed, said addressing a meeting that deliberated on the struggling industry that not only the number of tourists has decreased drastically following the state of emergency but those tourists who are in the country already have faced problems at check points, banks and Internet access which has been blocked by the regime.

The state of emergency declared early in October bans diplomats traveling beyond 40 kms (25 miles) radius outside the capital Addis Ababa. The regime, having seen the negative impact on tourism, issued a directive saying tourists can travel anywhere without any prior authorization. That directive came too little too late as the state of emergency had already took a toll in the country’s hospitality industry.

Representatives of tour operators and who attended the meeting also expressed their disappointment over the government’s action that caused the cancellation of travels to the country which they said has paralyzed the industry. They said the cancellations have led to the bankruptcy of local tour operators.

The unrest in the Amhara and Oromo regions in the country has kept tourists away from the country seriously affecting the income that the country generates from the hospitality industry.

Several mainstream media outlets quoting tour operators and local guides reported that tourists have cancelled their trip to Ethiopia’s destinations in the month of October, which otherwise is a month of tourism boom.

Belayneh Mengesha is a Lalibela tour guide who was born and raised in the town. He says October is usually the start of the high season but not this year, according to a report by the VOA.

“Unfortunately, because of this problems happening in some parts of the country, some just have already cancelled their trips to Ethiopia,” said Mengesha.

UK’s Foreign Office (FCO) is advising against all travel to some regions in the east and all but essential travel to central parts that include places such as Lalibela, popular with tourists for its rock-cut churches, the report by the Telegraph said.

Saga Holidays is among a number of major UK tour operators to cancel trips to Ethiopia as a wave of unrest spreads across the African country, the Telegraph reported.

A spokesperson for Saga said all 2016 departures had been cancelled, adding: “The initial change to FCO advice was that some areas should be avoided. As a result tours were amended to ensure that our holidaymakers were nowhere near those areas. However… the advice changed again and advised against all but essential travel to certain regions of Ethiopia. As a result we took the decision to cancel all 2016 departures.”

The Telegraph also quoted a spokesperson for Kuoni, which offers a tour of the highlights of Northern Ethiopia, as saying that it had stopped selling the trip and would be monitoring the situation.

The U.S. Department of State on last week issued a travel warning to Ethiopia advising citizens against what it called “nonessential” travels after the ruling Tigrian minority regime declared a state of emergency following a yearlong deadly anti-government protests.