Impact of Internal Conflicts on Tourism and Hospitality Industry in Ethiopia: The Perspective of Hotels and Tour Operators in Addis Ababa
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Date
2023-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
War is the major factor that hinders the pace of the tourism industry more than any other factors. Just before November 4, 2020, the country was in a comparatively good tourism movement as it had implemented the safety protocol for the pandemic. It is believed that internal conflicts affect not only the tourism sector but also every aspect of a country. This thesis focuses on assessing the impact of the recent internal conflicts on the stakeholders of tourism businesses in Addis Ababa. The study employed descriptive research design in line with mixed research approach. Questionnaire and interview were instruments used to collect primary data. For the questionnaire 71managers of tourism stakeholder, the tour operators and the hotel industry, and 6 key informants for in-depth interviews were selected using purposive sampling method in order to address the objective of the study. To produce statistical outputs, the collected quantitative data were processed using SPSS(Statistical Package for Social Science) version 25 and analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean analysis and the Pearson’s correlation. The qualitative data were also analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings of the study indicated that internal conflict has negatively impacted the tour operators and the hotel industry in Addis Ababa. The harmonious relation among employees was negatively affected. The stakeholders of the study area have faced potential political threat and banned to give service for some days. The findings have revealed that the internal conflict has created a negative image to the tourism sector of the whole country. Tourists were not happy and feeling comfortable during the conflict. Many have cancelled pre scheduled visits. Tourists who were in Ethiopia during the start of the conflicts could always have a negative image about the tourism of country. In case of promotion, the tourism stakeholders have done nothing to promote the tourism sector and get the reputation back. They have faced economic problems. And finally, the political instability is hindering the stakeholders from using all the opportunities all over the country. Hence, they are making no business interactions among stakeholders in other parts. Therefore, the researcher suggested the government, the stakeholders and even individual citizen to work on keeping the reputation of the tourism sector and improving the social interaction and peace of the country.
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Keywords
Hotels, Tour Operators, Internal Conflict, Stakeholders