Ethiopian, Ugandan tour operators urged to cooperate in promoting tourism as a single destination

Tour Operators in Ethiopia and Uganda have been called upon to cooperate in promoting their tourist attraction sites as a single destination to tap into the huge tourism potential in the region.

The call was made on Friday by stakeholders in the tourism sector from both countries, during a tourism workshop themed “Ethiopia: Land of Origins -Your Next Tour Destination”

The workshop was organised by the Ethiopian Embassy in Uganda in Collaboration with the Association of Uganda Tour Operators (AUTO).

In her opening remark, the Ethiopian Ambassador to Uganda, Alemtsehay Meseret underscored the role of the workshop in creating a working relationship between tour operators in the two countries through experience sharing, networking, and exploring complementary tourism destinations.

She also highlighted the tourism potential that exists in Ethiopia and the government's effort to develop more sites, especially in the capital city Addis Ababa, where the African Union and UNECA are headquartered.

Furthermore, Meseret urged Ethiopian and Ugandan tour operators to join hands in order to promote their tourism assets so that they can benefit from a huge tourism potential that East Africa has.

In her remark, Yewagnesh Biriggwa, board member of the Uganda Tourism Board marked that the African continent has immense tourism potential that needs to be tapped by promoting inter-Africa Tourism and travels.

Furthermore, she called on Ugandan tour operators to promote Ethiopian tourist attraction sites, and at the same time Ethiopian tour operators to promote the Pearl of Africa - Uganda.

Meanwhile, Sisay Getachew, a senior tourism expert from the Ministry of Tourism of Ethiopia, disclosed the reasons why Ethiopia is a country to visit and further introduced the Ethiopian tourism destinations that could be packaged by Ugandan tour operators.

These he said include; national tourism brand emanated from the spirit of originality through being the origin of mankind, the origin of Coffee and source of the only African Alphabet, and the source of African inspiration for independence, among others.

He urged tour operators of Uganda and Ethiopia to build a business relationship and promote the region as a single destination and exploit tourism as a tool for regional integration.

Delivering the closing remark, the State Minister at the Ministry of Tourism of Ethiopia, Seleshi Girma expressed Ethiopia's keen interest to create joint regional tourism packages with countries in East Africa to compete in the global tourism market.