Opportunities and Challenges of Sustainable Pro-Poor Tourism Development in Awi Zone: A Case Study of Lake Zengena and Its Surrounding.
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Date
2019-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The need to develop a sustainable tourism is a primary concern because of the growing impact
and complexity of the tourism sector across the global community. The pro-poor tourism concept
in this study is aimed at helping the tourism sector in generating net benefits to the poor. The
research entitled the opportunities and challenges for sustainable pro-poor tourism development
in Awi zone: A Case Zengena and its surrounding aims to assess the benefits and opportunities
for sustainable pro-poor tourism development, the challenges that hinder the development of
sustainable pro-poor tourism and the involvement and awareness level of tourism stakeholders.
A descriptive cross-sectional study design with qualitative and quantitative research methods
was used. Samples for interviewer administered questionnaire were taken from the local
communities and tourists using simple random sampling. A purposive sampling technique was
used to required samples for in-depth interview from the tourism experts, local tour guides,
monastery administrator, hotel managers and lodge managers. Data was collected using both
primary and secondary data sources. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 and
qualitative data through text narration. Totally 118 study participants were included in the
study, 109 for the quantitative and 9 for the qualitative study. The tourism experts and other
study participants reported that Zengena & its surrounding have many unexploited tourism
business potentials that improve the sustainability of pro-poor tourism development. There was a
good initiation to engage in small & micro enterprises related to tourism business. The most
mentioned business opportunities reported were opportunities of being a tour guide, souvenir
shopping, agricultural product marketing and other employment opportunities. On the other
hand, Lack of local community participation towards sustainable tourism development was the
most mentioned challenge. Generally Zengena and its surrounding have multiple unexplored
tourism potentials with numerous business opportunities. However, various challenges were
mentioned by the study participants that needs an immediate attention from all the concerned
stakeholders
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Keywords
Sustainable, Pro-poor, Tourism Development, Lake Zengena, Ethiopia