# Ethiopia Is Africa's Next Big Thing, and Here's Why > Discover how Ethiopia earned its reputation as Africa's headline discovery: an ancient kingdom, dramatic mountains and the routes the whole world is talking about. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/efiopiya-nove-haryache-mistse/ - Language: en - Published: 2023-07-21 - Categories: Culture, Mountains, Tours, Ethiopia, Plains --- In the late 1950s, Ethiopian Airlines launched an advertising campaign in the Western press that pitched the ancient kingdom as Africa's "new travel adventure." More than half a century on, the vast East African nation still hasn't lived up to those lofty expectations. But that may not be the case for much longer. The sights, the landscapes and the culture are already here. Ethiopia's ancient Orthodox Christianity has left the country with thousands of churches and monasteries, some of them inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. A succession of empires and kingdoms added medieval fortresses, palaces and tombs, such as the citadel of Gondar and the stone stelae of Aksum. From Lake Tana and the Blue Nile to the red-rock Gheralta Mountains, the arid Danakil Desert and the lush Omo Valley, the scenery is both breathtaking and wildly diverse. Ethiopia's wildlife is just as varied, ranging from the classic animals of the African savanna in the south to unique local residents like the gelada baboon and the Ethiopian wolf. The missing ingredient has always been infrastructure: the hotels, restaurants and service that tourism rivals such as Kenya and South Africa mastered decades ago. ## A Turning Point "For a long time, tourism took a back seat," says Solomon Tadesse, chief executive of the Ethiopian Tourism Organization (ETO). "The country was going through huge changes, and the government's priorities were health care, education and connectivity." Not to mention drought, famine and revolution. "There were fundamental reasons why the tourism infrastructure was never built." According to Tadesse, in 2013 the government finally decided that tourism could create jobs, income and wealth like any other economic sector. A Tourism Transformation Council was set up to steer the industry's growth, along with the ETO, which would handle marketing, promotion and product development. The tourism push coincided with a surge of foreign investment from China, India, Turkey and other countries, which lifted GDP to annual growth rates of around 10%. As Ethiopia's economy takes off, tourism is moving slowly but surely toward the big expectations that were placed on it more than half a century ago. ## New Infrastructure on the Rise ![View of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia](/storage/image/prev/Ethiopia-1-ifrastrykt-1024x625.jpg) Stadtansicht von Addis Abeba, Hauptstadt von Aethiopien, 12.10.2015. Copyright: Thomas Imo/ photothek.net \[Tel. +493028097440 - www.photothek.net - Jegliche Verwendung nur gegen Honorar und Beleg. Urheber-/Agenturvermerk wird nach Paragraph13 UrhG ausdruecklich verlangt! Es gelten ausschliesslich unsere AGB.\]Addis Ababa is in the middle of a building boom that includes a massive expansion of Bole International Airport and a string of new hotels, among them gleaming high-rise projects from Marriott and InterContinental now under construction. The capital has a new light-rail system (the first in Africa), and the Chinese government has taken on a $4 billion project to rebuild and modernize the old railway line between Addis and Djibouti. A brand-new expressway channels traffic through the Great Rift Valley south of the capital, while a nationwide road-improvement campaign is quickly upgrading overland links between other major cities. Provincial capitals are getting new airport terminals and, in some cases (such as Jinka), airports where there was nothing before. Ethiopian Airlines is also gaining momentum. Marking its 70th anniversary this year, the national carrier is in the midst of a major expansion that includes the latest Boeing and Airbus aircraft. The route network is growing too: since the start of 2015 it has added New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Dublin, Cape Town and Manila. Tadesse expects visitor numbers to top one million people for the first time this year, twice as many as three years ago. With so many new hotels and improved infrastructure, Addis Ababa is ready for a wave of tourists. But doubts remain about whether the rest of the country is ready to become the next big thing in African tourism. ## Appealing New Places to Stay ![Ethiopian countryside](/storage/image/prev/Ethiopia-2-land-1024x682.jpg) Poor accommodation isn't always the biggest problem outside the capital. Even the best hotels in famous spots like Gondar, Lalibela and Bahir Dar sit only a notch above backpacker level. In the south of the country the hotel situation is even more dismal, with only a handful rising above a single star. The problems range from a lack of air conditioning, mosquito nets and basic toiletries to substandard service, less than stellar restaurant food and littered hotel grounds. Here and there, though, you'll find the odd gem. Take Gheralta Lodge, in the mountains of the same name between Aksum and Mek'ele in northern Ethiopia. Set on a raised ridge, its stone cottages look out over a stunning red-rock landscape reminiscent of the American Southwest. "I spent six months traveling around Ethiopia with my wife, drawing up a list of 13 places that would be perfect for a hotel," says the lodge's owner and founder Silvio Rizzotti, an Italian citizen who was born in Ethiopia. "We narrowed the list down to three, and then decided that Gheralta was the best place to create a modern eco-lodge." New hotels are going up elsewhere. The Addis Ababa-based Jacaranda company is building luxury properties on the shore of Lake Tana near Bahir Dar, on a hilltop above the ancient stelae of Aksum, in Simien Mountains National Park and overlooking historic Gondar. The properties will be managed by the South African hotel group AHA, one of the most experienced operators of lodges, camps and hotels in the lower part of the continent. Jacaranda's Gondar Hills resort, expected to open late this year or in early 2017, is especially impressive, with a price tag of $20 million. This eco-friendly hotel will have 110 rooms carved from local stone and tucked beneath energy-saving turf roofs. "Tourism in Ethiopia is a new business," says Jacaranda manager Andinet Feleke. "So you can't compare it with Kenya or Tanzania. Until recently it wasn't a government priority. "But over the past three or four years the situation has improved a great deal. And now far more people understand that tourism matters to Ethiopia, that we can compete with the best destinations in Africa."