Umer, Mohammed (PhD)Chernet, Daniel2018-07-032023-11-092018-07-032023-11-092009-06http://10.90.10.223:4000/handle/123456789/5685Addis Ababa is the main get way into and out of the country; hence it receives many tourists. Besides this, the contribution of the tourism industry as a source of revenue in general and the contribution of ecotourism both as a source of revenue and as a means of environmental sustainability in particular is low. Therefore, there is a strong need to studying ecotourism, as part of an alternative form of tourism, for the growth of low impact tourism in the area and for its natural ecosystem maintenance as well as for the benefit of local population. Ecotourism can have many components that can broadly be categorized in to three: Natural, Cultural and Educative components. The aim of this paper is thus to identify potentially suitable sites for ecotourism in the surroundings of Addis Ababa City mainly based on the Natural components of ecotourism. Seven factors, namely: Land use-land cover, Soil, Elevation, Slope, Vegetation density, Temperature and Rainfall were considered to determine the suitability of an area for ecotourism. More emphasis was given to the classification and accuracy assessment of land use-land cover. The result, thus, showed that 84.96% overall accuracy and 0.82 overall kappa statistics which indicates better classification. Using Multicriteria evaluation, sites suitable for ecotourism were identified. The result showed that highly suitable area accounts for 11 percent, moderately suitable area for 29 percent. Less suitable and very less suitable area, on the other hand, accounts for 33 and 27 percent, respectively. Large parts of the highly suitable areas lie in the Northern, Northwestern and southwestern parts of the study area. Specifically, it includes areas such as ‘Suba Menagesha Yemengist Den’, Wolmera Goro, area around Menagesh town, Menagesha Medhanealem, Suba and Elala Gojo, some parts of Intoto, Legedadi, Mount Yerer and Mount Furi. Small parts of the highly suitable areas, on the other hand, lie in the extreme parts of the southeastern part of the study area. For the moderately suitable areas, except, for few that are found in the southern parts of the study area, the rest are found nearby the highly suitable areas. The least suitable areas are found dispersedly in all part of the study area. Very least suitable areas, however, are rare in the Northern, North western and southwestern part of the study area. The southern part of the study area is dominated by very least suitable areas. Key words: Ecotourism, Multi-criteria evaluation, Remote Sensing and GISenEcotourismMulti-criteria evaluationRemote Sensing and GISThesis