China-Ethiopia Tourism Industry Cooperation Dialogue Looks to Strengthen Bilateral Economic Ties

The Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia held a China-Ethiopia Tourism Industry Cooperation Dialogue event in Addis Ababa on Friday 19^th August, 2016 as a means of further developing bilateral cooperation in the lucrative tourism field.

The meeting sought to leverage the existing strong trade and investment links between the two countries as a means of helping Ethiopia benefit from the rapid growth of Chinese outbound travellers worldwide as it continues to develop its tourism and hospitality sector.

Speaking in Addis Ababa, Chinese Ambassador La Yifan highlighted Ethiopia’s rich wildlife, natural scenery and diverse cultural products as offering strong potential with which to draw tourists from China. His counterpart, Ethiopian State Minister of Culture and Tourism Tadelech Dalecho stated that she wished to see existing Chinese investment in Ethiopian infrastructure projects reproduced in the tourism industry and promoted a number of existing commercial incentives including: tax holidays, custom-free imports of capital goods for industry investors and competitive leasing prices for land access.

Ethiopia is already well-poised to attract increasingly greater numbers of outbound tourists from China. In addition to offering visa-free access to Chinese nationals, the Ethiopian capital’s Bole International Airport, a significant regional hub, provides direct passenger services to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou operated by Ethiopian Airlines. Ambassador La Yifan made sure to mention that Chinese travellers already made up 70 percent of the passengers on these flights.

Ethiopia welcomed 918,000 tourists of all nationalities in 2015, bringing a total of USD 4.3 billion into the local economy. While it is unlikely that Ethiopia will be able compete with the visitor numbers seen in established African tourism hotspots such as Egypt, South Africa and Morocco in the near future, the government hopes that it will be amongst the continent’s top five tourist destinations by 2020. Accordingly, as has been the case in countries around the world, Ethiopia has recognised the potential benefits that adapting its tourism products in order to attract Chinese outbound travellers can have on its domestic industry.

COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute provides expert insights into the worldwide developments of China’s outbound tourism market. As Chinese outbound tourists are travelling to a large range of destinations, our publications cover a number of different regions. Important Chinese visitor activities are analysed, and detailed insights are presented.

With COTRI’s insights you can create a successful business strategy with in-depth market insights, comprehensive qualitative analyses, and future prospects. The recently published Spring 2016 Edition of the COTRI Market Report features in-depth analysis of the developing trends in Chinese outbound tourism, supported by a wealth of qualitative and quantitative statistical research.

Sources: Xinhua, Ethiopian News Agency, AllAfrica

Photo: flickr