Ethiopia is focussing on tourism from India, with an aim to bag a substantial chunk of 13 million Indians travelling outside the country every year.
Located in the Horn of Africa, the African nation plans to raise the pitch about 'Come, visit Ethiopia' theme to project itself among top five hot spots in the continent."India is a good source market for tourism now a days. More than 13 million people travel out of India every year. We also expect to have a good share of this market, even one or two per cent of this is significant for us," Genet Teshome, Consulate General of Ethiopia in Mumbai, told PTI here.
Asked how the government plans to popularise Ethiopia as a tourist destination in India, Teshome said, "We at trying our best to advertise Ethiopian destinations in India. We participated in a number of tour and travel exhibitions. Only this year we participated in Pune."
Surrounded by Eritrea in north, Djibouti and Somalia in east, Sudan and South Sudan in west, and Kenya in south, the second most populous nation in the Africa has made elaborate arrangements to attract Asian tourists, including from India."Our Federal Government is very clear in its aim that Ethiopia should be among the five top tourist destinations in Africa and India will play a very crucial role in this process," said Tourism Facilitation Senior Expert, Cultural and Tourism Ministry, Getenet Yigzaw.
Having recently opened a cultural centre in its embassy in New Delhi, the country is also planning to set up tourism boards in India for tourism promotion."By next year we plan to establish our Tourism Boards in New Delhi and Mumbai. India is going to be a crucial factor in development of Ethiopia as a world-class tourism destination," Yigzaw said.
Ethiopia and India are among some of the most ancientcivilisations in the world and we are ready to establish this connection again through tourism promotion, Yigzaw added.
Mandated to popularise the country's tourism, the state-owned Ethiopian Airlines recently took a group of tour and travel operators from India on a week-long familiarisation tour to some of its popular destinations."We have all forms of tourism in Ethiopia, be it historical, wild life, religious and anthropological. We need to promote it as a package," said Tekeba H Sellasie, Regional Director (Indian subcontinent), Ethiopian Airlines.
The airline presently operates a total of 14 passenger and nine cargo flights a week from Delhi and Mumbai. It also plans to operate from other Indian cities in coming years."We are planning to have Chennai then after a while we want to operate from Bangalore and Ahmedabad also. These will be three new destinations. Their frequency will depend on the traffic volume and the market share along with the demand. If the demand is there we can make it daily also," he said.
Keeping in mind the distinct food habits of the Indian tourists, the country is paying special attention to this factor."We have a good number of Indian restaurants in Addis Ababa. This can be increased with flow of Indian tourists. Our food is very close to Indian in terms of flavour and sometimes even ingredients in some cases. For vegetarians we have a huge variety of Ethiopian fasting food," Teshome said.
Ethiopia, also known as the 'Cradle of Human Kind', is widely considered the region where the human species first started to walk upright some 3.2 million years ago.
"In 1974, 52 fragments of hominid were discovered in Lower Awash Valley. The study of this early hominid skeletons provided clue as to when and how the humans began to walk upright," Yigzaw said.
In terms of nature, Ethiopia is the fourth largest bio-diversity zone in the world and claims to have more unique species of flora and fauna than any other African nation.
It has 20 National Parks, four wildlife sanctuaries, eight wildlife reserves as well as 18 controlled hunting areas.
