Project Description
Ethiopia is a nation with a wealth of tourism potential because of its diversity of attractions; however, a negative international image combined with limited tourism facilities hinders the country’s ability to reap greater economic benefits from tourism. Additionally, environmental degradation of key natural attractions is a problem because of growing populations in surrounding areas, inadequate protected area management, and expansion of grazing areas, illegal logging, and unregulated industry. Together, these issues pose a serious threat to Ethiopia’s sustainable development.
The ESTA was a USAID-funded program established to promote biodiversity conservation and provide communities with alternative livelihoods through the development of sustainable tourism. By working with a variety of local stakeholders (including representatives from the government, private sector, and local community groups), the ESTA framed the design and planning of sustainable tourism development in these areas for five years. This included a series of activities focused on conservation and ecotourism development, private sector competitiveness, workforce development, and handcraft development, all supported by cross-cutting activities that employed various forms of communication and social networking.
Major Activities
- Created Community Enterprises: Solimar created seven community tourism enterprises utilizing its tailored training tools, which provided jobs and revenue for communities in the Central and Southern Rift Valley in Ethiopia.
- Developed Brand and Website: Solimar developed a brand (Roots of Ethiopia) for the various community tourism enterprises and created a website to showcase each community offering and help reverse Ethiopia’s negative international image.
- Developed Marketing and Awareness Collateral: Solimar and the ESTA developed and published valuable marketing and educational collateral aimed at increasing awareness of community tourism and incentivizing the travel trade.
- Managed Relationships: Solimar utilized online tools and traditional communication platforms to establish linkages between stakeholders in community tourism and engaged the international travel community.
- Built Capacity: Solimar conducted training workshops and created training materials for ESTA personnel to ensure that they could use the tools and activities necessary to implement community tourism in Ethiopia and continue working toward the goal of sustainable development.
Results
- Creation of 7 community enterprises whose profits will help expand their business, but also provide environmental protection and conservation though community initiatives.
- Development of an investment proposal package for an eco-lodge that led to a $1 million investment that funded the development of the Bale Ecolodge.
- Creation of a Traveler’s Philanthropy Program to harness tourist participation that contributes to key conservation and development initiatives.
- Creation of a National Geographic Geotourism MapGuide to promote the natural, cultural, and historical attractions of Ethiopia.
- Improvement of the current tourism and conservation policy environments.
