Potentials, Practices and Challenges of Tourism Development in Ambo Town, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

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.