Tourism Development Endeavours in and around World Heritage Sites in Ethiopia: Practices at Lower Omo Paleontological and Paleoenvironmental Site, SNNPRS

Abstract

The link between world heritage sites and tourism development has remained ambiguous in Ethiopia. The country is often mentioned on the top list among the African countries with the largest number (nine) of world heritage sites. Of the site's potential for tourism destination development, this study explores tourism practices on the site and their benefits to the local communities. In 2017, fieldwork was conducted for two weeks in selected Lower Omo paleontological and paleoenvironmental sites. A mixed approach was employed to investigate the link between the site and tourism development and community benefits. Data were collected using questionnaires, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. The result demonstrated that international researchers had worked at the sites since 1888 for 129 years. The site was inscribed as a world heritage site in 1980 due to its outstanding discoveries in human evolution and early stone tools. This paleontological site has great tourist attraction potential, but the road to the site was poorly developed. The result further corroborated the absence of tourist information centres, museums, locally trained tour guides, craft products, and hotels and restaurants in and around the site. The efforts to promote the site were also found to be so minimal. As a result, the community's benefit from the available tourism resources was insignificant. Therefore, it is time to promote the site and enhance its advantages through integrated tourism development planning at the Lower Omo Valley of the world heritage site.