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,[4] 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.
Mission
To study, preserve, develop and promote the cultural wealth and the national tourism attractions of the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia and to build the positive images of Ethiopia with a view to adding a sustainable socio-economic and political values with popular and stakeholder’s participation.
Vision
To make Ethiopia one of the top five tourist destinations of Africa in 2020 through the development of its cultural wealth and natural attraction
Values
Respect diversity
Hospitality
Transparency
Accountability
Commitment to change
Excellent Service
Participations
History
Beginning from the dawn of the 19th century, ‘modern European civilization gradually started taking momentum and grip in Ethiopia under the circumstances where power centralization of the central government was dominantly rampant in the country’, in which case modern management of culture has been addressed through the indirect management or administration of various Ministries and any other government agencies during the pre-and post-Fascist Italian Occupation, particularly in the post-independence/victory period.
The disentanglement of multifaceted cultural activities from the existing traditional and customary cultural management patterns as well as the association of such cultural activities with the modern cultural management processes were unsystematic and disorganized until the end of the Hailesellasie/Imperial Regime. Accordingly, the current National Archives and Libraries Agency, which was established in 1943 under the official name of “Public Library-Wemzeker”, was proven to have been a pioneer in this respect; this Agency, which underlies the initiatives to undertake contemporary heritage research and preservation activities, includes the Ethiopian Ancient Heritages Administration. The relevant historical accounts reveal that the “Ministry of Education and Arts” was subsequently established to have comprised ‘Addis Ababa Art School’, ‘Etege Handcrafts School’, ‘Tegbared School’ and ‘Yared Musical School’ thereby establishing and managing Amharic Linguistics/ Yeamargna Merhalisan/ apart from carrying out its formal education programs.
The Ministry of Information was established to, apart from conducting regular activities of information, set up and manage the Ethiopian Hager Fiker Theater, Haileselassie I Theater, National Theater of Ethiopia and various cinemas.
In spite of the fact that the commencement and subsequent activities of modern cultural institutions and management patterns were initiated in disorganized manners, the required level of advancement regarding this sector has not been realized as symbiotic interactions among multi-dimensional were not provided with favorable conditions. As such, the pertinent historical accounts witness that different scholars, including local and African minds, who were interested in admiring and honoring the peoples and cultures of Ethiopia, have come up with various concepts concerning modern cultural management.
