The Effect of Seasonal Tourist Flow on Touroperators in Addis Ababa
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Date
2021-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Seasonality is a universally recognized tourism phenomenon and it has been considered as a crucial problem for the tourism industry. The main objective of this study was to assess the effects of seasonal tourist flow on tour operators in Addis Ababa. The study used mixed (crosssectional) research design; and descriptive approach was employed to present the results. The target population of the study was tour operators and the total population of the study was 563 tour operators which are based in Addis Ababa. Among these 234 (41.56%) participants were selected using systematic random sampling technique. Data were collected using questionnaire and interview. The data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches depending on the nature of data collected. The quantitative data from the questionnaire were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage). The findings indicated that the flow of tourists in Addis Ababa was highly seasonal for the last three and half years (from 2018 -2021). The major causes of tourists’ seasonal flow were institutional factors such as public holidays; and resulted in loss of profits, employee turnover, loan load, and loss of business connections. The study concluded that tour operators of Addis Ababa suffered a lot from tourism seasonality that they had to employ a mechanism that reduces the effect. Because, seasonality of tourism is not avoidable; rather reducing it to a significant level was possible. Organizing different events with reasonable prices at low seasons could have reduced the negative effects on tour operators. Aaccordingly, the study recommended that tour operators should use four strategies to address seasonality impacts; involving variations in the product mix, diversifying the market, price differentials and stateinitiated measures
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Keywords
Tourist, Seasonality, Effect, Tour Operators, Tourism