Assessing the Role of Domestic Religious Tourism Associations for Peace Building in Ethiopia: The Case of Hawire Hiwot Pilgrimages
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Date
2021-04
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The general objective of the study was to investigate the missing link between domestic
religious tourism associations and peace building in Ethiopia. Due to its appropriateness
and relevance descriptive were employed. Population of the study comprised of travel
organizers, center coordinators, preachers, Hawire Hiwot pilgrims travel in different
sites from Addis Ababa head office of Mahebere Kedusan and stakeholder. For this
research, purposive sampling was used to pick the sample from travel managers, travel
planners, and preachers who had huge experience of involving in Hawire Hiwot travel
packages and staffs who directly and indirectly take part in managing the travel and
stakeholder in the field. Out of 20,000 pilgrims travelled on per a single trip, the
researcher selected travelers who made trip more than 3 times to get plenty information
since participant observation was not possible due to Covid 19. And 200 of them had
track record of travelling more than 3 times as pilgrims in different religious sites. The
primary data were collected through questionnaire and semi-structured interview.
Secondary data were collected from both published and unpublished sources such as
books, journals, unpublished reports and internet sources. Core findings of the study are
domestic religious tourism associations have roles in peace building of a country by
promoting tolerance, acceptance and resolving conflicts in peaceful manner. In relation
to building peace at the destination areas the research revealed that Hawire Hiwot has
low impact on the peace building process of the destination area. Therefore, it is
recommended that the association should enlarge its focus areas of work using religion as the
means to social transformation and the plat forms for engaging need to be so interactive. The
association has to involve in all sorts of peace-building activities, including advocacy,
education, inter-faith and intra-faith dialogue, mediation, observation and transitional
justice actors.
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Keywords
Hawire Hiwot, Tourism, Domestic Tourism, Religious Tourism, SocioCultural Value, Peace, Peace Building, Ethiopia