This article first appeared on World Bank blog
From the otherworldly vistas of the Bale Mountains to the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela and the mysterious stelae of Tiya, Ethiopia is home to a unique mix of natural, cultural, and historical sites. UNESCO has added 11 Ethiopian sites to its World Heritage List with an additional seven on the tentative list. Ethiopian food has found a global audience (culinary tourism is an USD11 billion market globally!) and Ethiopian Airlines brings the world to Ethiopia’s front door.
Ethiopia saw a near doubling of tourist arrivals from 438,000 in 2010 to 936,000 in 2017. This was driven by improvements in air travel connectivity and a dedicated effort to market Ethiopia as a world-class destination. It led to an increase in foreign exchange earnings which reached a high of nearly USD3.6 billion in 2018, at more than 45 percent of exports. In 2019, an estimated 1.9 million jobs were in the tourism sector which generated more than 6 percent of…
