Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Ethiopia)

The Ethiopian Ministry of Culture and Tourism is the ministry of the Government of Ethiopia responsible for researching, preserving, developing, and promoting the culture and tourist attractions of Ethiopia and its peoples, both inside the country and internationally. In doing so the Ministry closely works together with different national and international stakeholders.

Subordinate bodies include the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH), Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA), National Archives and Library Agency, and Ethiopian National Theatre.

The Ministry publicizes the country's resources of tourist attractions and encourages the development of tourist facilities. It also licenses and supervises establishments of tourist facilities such as hotels and tour operators, and sets the standards for them.

Ethiopia is blessed with abundant natural tourist attractions, including nine World Heritage Sites, but the Ministry of Culture and Tourism still struggles to attract tourists in decent numbers owing to poor investment, security, and does not have any cohesive tourism development or promotion strategy. As a result most tourists fly over Ethiopia to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa to name a few countries. Nevertheless the Ministry puts out regular press releases every year claiming 300-400,000+ tourist have visited Ethiopia every year, despite Ethiopia having only about 3000 hotel rooms, and of that only 2000 are tourist class rooms.

The reality is that every transit passenger on Ethiopian Airlines who spends a night-in-transit in Addis Ababa on a connecting flight is classed as a tourist for statistics and reporting.

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Wikipedia