Religious Tourism Development: The Case of Lalibela Town, Amhara Region, Ethiopia
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Date
2013-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The overall significance of tourism in general and religious tourism in particular has got recognition
from different scholars and organizations. However, its development mainly in Africa has faced numerous
challenges. Ethiopia is unique and sacred in Africa for the ancient two monotheistic world religions
namely Islam and Christianity. The existence of the ancient religions together with traditional African
beliefs and their spiritual elements, made Ethiopia most preferable religious tourism destination in
Africa. One of the ample religious sites of the country, Lalibela town, is the study area. The objectives of
this study entitled with 'Religious Tourism Development: The case of Lalibela town Amhara region,
Ethiopia' are identifying the religious tourism development challenges and opportunities, assessing
mechanisms that help to promote opportunities and minimize the challenges of religious tourism
development, Analyzing the ways in which religious tourism can serve as a tool in cOllserving heritages,
empowering conln1unities and bringing sustainable development. The study is both qualitative and
quanlitUlilJe in its design. Interview, questionnaire non participant observation, and document analysis
are the main data gathering tools used in this srudy. The qualllitative data collected were analyzed using
SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) and presented through tables, graphs and charts where as
the qualitative information lVere precisely narrated. Accordingly, the findings of th e study demonstrated
that the town of LaUbela is one of the most impressive religious tourism destinations in Ethiopia. The
town is endowed with ample religious al/ribu!es. However, there are also challenges influencing the
development of the site as the most successful religious tourism destination in the coU/illy. These
challenges of religious tourism development in LaUbela town are properly identified in this study. Thus,
minimization or alleviation of all identified challenges and effective promotion and utilization of
opportunities with proper involvement of the local communiry would enable religious tourism to be an
effective instrument for local community empowerment, heritage cOl/servation and sustainable
developmelll iI/ the town as well as the counny at large.
Kev words: Awareness, Challenges, Local Community Monotheistic, Opportunities, Religious
Heritage, Religious Tourism, Sacred, Sustainable development
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Keywords
Awareness, Local Community, Challenges, Monotheistic, Opportunities, Religious Heritage, Religious Tourism, Sacred, Sustainable development