Exploring the Tourism Potentials In and Around Debre Libanos Monastery, North Shewa, Ethiopia
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Date
2017-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This thesis is intended to explore tourism potential in and around Debre Libanos Monastery. To achieve the objectives the researcher employed qualitative research method. Both primary and secondary data were used to explore the potentials. To collect the primary data, interview and focus group discussions were undertaken with selected community elders, Monastery administrators, government official and other concerned individuals. In addition, deep and continuous personal observation was conducted to fill the gaps of interview and other sources gathered from various literatures. The analysis of the study revealed that Debre Libanos Monastery has huge natural, cultural, spiritual and historical tourism potentials. Among these the natural potentials are plants, animals, landscapes. There are also various cultural heritages such as artifacts, buildings, songs, cultural food, holy water and others. Even though the Monastery has these tourism potentials and diversified values, they have not yet been developed and utilized due to various impeding factors such as lack of awareness about the tourism potentials, lack of tourist facilities, accommodations, limited budget to promote, scarcity of skilled man power, legal frameworks and gaps in heritage conservation are among the factors that hinder tourism development of the area. Therefore, it is recommended that there is need to promote the potentials and collaboration of the administrations of the monastery with different stakeholders such as Debre Libanos Woreda and North Shewa Zone Culture and Tourism Offices, local people, private sector and agriculture offices as all are responsible to develop and exploit tourism potentials of the study area.
Key words: Natural Tourism Potentials, Cultural Tourism Potentials, Destination Development, Stakeholders Participation, Community Awareness, Challenges of Tourism Development, Debre Libanos Monastery and Ethiopia.