COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
THESIS PROJRCT PROPOSAL

PAPER ON
APPRISING TOURISM DESTINATIONS
[IN THE CASE OF WOLAITA]

BY
DANIEL ALEMAYEHU
ENG/R/633/11

DATE 30 MARCH 2023

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to
countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional
purposes.
Tourism is one of the most important industries and the second fastest growing sector in the
world. According to (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2019) Travel & Tourism grew by 3.9%
in 2018, only next to Manufacturing, which grew by 4.0%. The sector contributed $8.8 trillion to
the global economy (10.4% of global GDP) and also across the world, more than 319 million
jobs were supported by the sector in 2018. This represents 10.0% of all employment, or one in
every ten jobs worldwide. According to (Africa Travel & Tourism Association, 2020) and
(World Travel & Tourism Council, 2019), Africa was the second fastest growing tourism region
(next to Asia-Pacific) with 5.6% growth and contributed 8.5% (or $194.2 billions) of the
continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018. According to (Jumia, 2019) and (World
Tourism Organization, 2019), tourism supported 24.3 million jobs in Africa and the continent
received around 5% of the estimated 1.4 billion international tourist arrivals in 2018. (World
Travel & Tourism Council, 2019) reported that, Ethiopia was the fastest growing country
(growing by 48.6%) in the world in terms of Travel & Tourism GDP and the sector contributed
$7.4 billion to the Ethiopian economy in 2018, an increase of $2.2 billion compared to that of
2017. The sector represents 9.4% of Ethiopia’s total economy and supported 2.2 million jobs, or
8.3% of total employment. This shows direct contribution of travel and tourism to employment
growth for Ethiopia was 41.6 %. As indicated in the World Travel and Tourism council’s latest
report, Ethiopian growth in terms of Travel & Tourism was driven mainly by international visitor
spending as 77% of the Travel & Tourism spending came from international travelers and 23%
from domestic travel. In 2018, total number of international tourist arrivals for Ethiopia was
849,000 and the sector was primarily driven by leisure travelers, i.e., 79% of the Travel &
Tourism spending was generated by leisure visitors and 21% from business travelers.
WOLAITA spelled as WELAYTA, WOLAYTA, WOLAYTTA OR WOLAITA is a beautiful
evergreen state at 385KMs south from Addis Ababa with astonishing natural resources, beautiful
people, indigenous food, culture, sports, dressings, music, art etc.
Problem Statement
The experience of Ethiopian tourism Promotion. Among the respondent 60% said that Ethiopian
government have a home assignment to promote Ethiopia and provide full information about the
tourist destiny. Whereas 39% respondents said that Ethiopian government sufficiently promote
and provide full information on the tourist destiny and the other 1% respondent keep silent to say
anything. Based on the above result the researchers conclude that Ethiopian government were
backward to promote Ethiopian tourism industry and expecting a lot from the government.
Apart from the above 51% respondent still put there strong comment and own experience. They
said that other African countries are much better use deferent ways of promotion to attract
customer than Ethiopia. Whereas 43% respondents said that Ethiopian government better
promotional way when we compare other African countries. The reaming 6% respondent keeps
silent instead of to say something. Based on the above results the researchers conclude that still
Ethiopia poor in promoting Ethiopian tourism when it compare the other African countries.
Another issue also their expectation, According to the respondent 58% tourist said that I had got
what it already promoted but the other 42% respondent said that the actual status of tourist
destiny and I previously seen by different means of promotion even by Tour Company packaging
is totally different.
The researcher also raise other issue to the respondent do you have an information that Ethiopia
is the leading heritage register by UNISCO in Africa. Among the respondent 51% said they
didn't have information while 49% respondents said I have information. Based on the above
result the researchers conclude that most of the foreign tourists they didn't have any information
Ethiopia is the leading African countries to registered heritage by UNISCO.
Based the above table, the researchers also asked that the tour and travel companies about the
experience of Ethiopian tourism organization to promote Ethiopia. They said that there is poor
experience to promote Ethiopian tourism places for the rest of the world in different means of
promotion like international channel routinely. Even there is a gap to promote tourist area to
domestic visitor.
The researchers also raised the question via interview for the marketing manager of ministry of
tourism and culture about the promotions of Ethiopia tourism for the rest of the world. They said
that in the past can say we are not better especially for promoting Ethiopian tourism destiny for
internally and externally but for the future have a plan to promote and can said that one of the
problems of Ethiopian tourism is lack of promotion.
In case of wolaita is same as other Ethiopian tourism destinations, wolaita has a lots of unique
places but those places has zero promotion for the tourists. As a result domestic and foreign
tourists have no information about wolaita and its sounding tourism destinations.
So this scenario makes a scarcity on the benefits which wolaita deserves from the sector of
tourism.
Research Question
 How to provide a convenient and safe visit for the foreign visitors, by creating a strong support
for the sector?
 How to increase the number of tourists to the zone?

Main Objective
The aim of the research is to see current context and the development of tourism destinations in the case
of wolaita zone and understanding the underlying issues, which architecturally influence the success of
tourism sector.

Specific Objective
 To attract foreign tourists to the zone.
 To develop the culture of visiting own tourism destinations to the domestic people.
 To increase income from the tourism sector.
 To find new tourism destinations and to promote them to the world.