Ethiopia, Sudan consult on tourism cooperation

A visiting Sudanese delegation held a consultative meeting with Ethiopian government officials on ways of enhancing cooperation on the tourism sector, said the ministry of foreign Affairs. A 24 member group of Sudanese delegation has been paying a visit in Ethiopia for a week. The visitors were Sudanese tour operators, travel agents and journalists from different Sudanese media houses. The visit was arranged by the Ethiopian Ministry of Culture and Tourism in collaboration with Ethiopian Embassy in Khartoum. The group has visited tourist sites in different parts of the country. Visitors said they have witnessed Ethiopia’s huge potential in tourism. The visit aimed to attract more Sudanese tourists to Ethiopia. At a farewell occasion, Ethiopia Minister for Culture and Tourism, Tadelech Dalecho, said in collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines, “in-flight advertisements are being screened to encourage tourism between Sudan and Ethiopia as part of the activities to help meet the goals for the sector under the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP)” Ethiopian Airlines presently has 11 flights a week to Khartoum. During the joint meeting the two sides agreed to further strengthen their cooperation in pushing forward the tourism industry to boost mutual benefit. The two neighboring countries will in future prepare an exchange tour programs to promote Ethiopia-Sudan tourism sector. Ethiopia has 9 heritages inscribed by UNESCO as World Heritage sites, making the Horn of Africa nation continent’s leading nation highest number of sites registered under UNESCO. Among others, the sites include Axum obelisk, Harar Jugol Wall, Konso Cultural Landscape, Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, and the Semien National Park. The country has seen an in increase the flow of tourists compared to last year. During the past 9 months alone nearly half million tourists have paid visit to the country and 371.8 million US dollars revenue were obtained during the stated period, according to State Ministry of Culture and Tourism.