Abstract:
Tourism is an industry that operates by the movement of the peoples from one place to other
place, for a given period of time and with varying reasons. This study is aimed to assess the
Potentials, Practices and Challenges of Tourism Development in Ambo Town. Qualitative and
quantitative research approaches with Descriptive research design were employed to address
the research objectives. Survey, key informants interview, focus group discussion and field
observation and secondary data were instruments of data collection for sources of primary data.
In addition to primary data, secondary data sources were also collected from written documents.
To select survey respondents and tourist sites, stratified random sampling and purposive
sampling technique were employed. The quantitative data was analyzed using frequency and
percentage when appropriate while qualitative data was used to triangulate and authenticate the
study. The study reveaedthat, Tourism potential of the study area has the power to develop the
tourism industry. On the other hand, the study also examined the increment of the rate of
domestic and foreign tourist flow in Ambo Town. The findings also identified several factors and
challenges, which slowed down tourism development in Ambo Town. Such as inadequate safety
and security to visitors, inadequate community awareness toward tourism, inadequate promotion
and marketing, inadequate cooperation and participation, inadequate training institutions,
administration related problems, and inadequate tourism infrastructure such as accommodation.
Some of potentials of tourism resources in the study area incldes natural (eg. hot spring),
cultural (eg food), historical (eg palaces), religious (eg ancient churches) can be mentioned.
Inaddition to this the study also identified the opportunities that facilitate tourism development in
the study area, such as peace and security of the study area. On the other hand the study also
identified several ways, which suggest the need for improvement such as expanding tourism
infrastructure; protection and conservation of tourist attraction sites, and establishing tourism
promotion and marketing.Based on the results the study recommended that the capacity of local
government, the iocal communities’ and other concerned stakeholders to develop the tourism
industry in the study area.
