Practices of Religious Tourism Development at Adadi Mariam Rock Hewn Church, South West of Addis Ababa
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Date
2021-02
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Religious tourism is a form of tourism in which tourists are engaged initially for religious
purposes and it expresses the desire of people to move from their place of residence to another
place they considered as sacred. This thesis focuses on assessing the practice of religious
tourism development at Adadi Mariam Rock-Hewn Church, southwest of Addis Ababa. This
study applied a cross-sectional research design in line with a mixed research approach. The
researcher used both primary and secondary data. The primary data was gathered using
interview for 9 key informants from Oromia Bureau of Culture and tourism staffs, Woreda
tourism bureau staffs, community elders, church administrator, Self-administered questionaries’
was prepared for 163 local and foreign tourists using non-probability purposive sampling, the
data collection from foreign tourists was taken place through email, a personal observation was
undertaken with the help of the checklists which focuses on checking the tourism services and
products available at Adadi Mariam, checking the tourist facilities and infrastructures. The data
was analyzed using Narrative and thematic types of data analysis. The findings of the study
showed that Adadi Maraim Rock Hewn church is a destination that can attract religious and
non-religious tourists; the church has spiritual tourism resources that attract tourists to the
destination. But religious tourism in Adadi Mariam has been less developed due to the following
challenges; poor infrastructure, lack of coordination among stakeholders and concerned bodies,
less attention given to the destination, lack of awareness, limited diversification of tourism
products and services, and focuses on a single tourism product, lack of digital promotion and
limited technological infrastructure, unwise resource conservation were among the challenges.
Therefore, it’s recommended that the relationship between stakeholders and concerned bodies
should be improved, Infrastructural development would be the key, product diversification is
necessary and wise conservation is needed.
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Keywords
Religious tourism, Adadi Mariam Rock Hewn Church, Tourist infrastructure and facilities, Tourism Products and Services