Addis Globe, September 23, 2020
Ethiopia has lifted restrictions imposed on tourism and sporting events. The House of People’s Representatives (HPR), in its urgent session, decided the tourism sector to go ahead and sport events to take place in accordance with the precaution measures recommended by the Ministry of Health.
Ethiopia introduced the restrictions on the tourism and sporting events in March this year due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
Ethiopia is one of the oldest independent states in the world. It is a landlocked country geographically located in the horn of Africa bordered by Djibouti, Eretria, Sudan, Kenya, and Somalia. Its geographical location and geological activities performed centuries ago endowed the country with plentiful tourism resources.
The country could be called as a land of paradox. One could find him/her self at the top of the cold mountain ranges (Simien and Bale Mountain ranges) or in the middle of the hottest place on earth with temperature exceeding 50 degree Celcius (Danakil Desert). The country is endowed with forests jangles (Kefa Biosphere Reserve), breathtaking waterfalls (Blue Nile waterfall), welcoming and charming peoples and eye-catching endemic animals (Ethiopian Wolf, Mountain Nyala, Walia Ibex, etc). inside holiest churches and monasteries or impressive mosques.
There are widely known cultural and historical tourism treasures of in the country. These include the historic route heritages commonly consist of Obelisks of Axum, RockHewn churches of Lalibela and the medieval period capital of Gondar. The ancient walled city of Harar, Sof Umer cave, Dire Sheikh Hussein, Tana monasteries, Yeha and museums of Addis Ababa are other tourism assets of the country.
The country has also the biggest number of heritages registered in the world heritage list in Africa. Eight of these registered heritages are cultural heritages; one is natural heritage and the remaining three are intangible heritages. These heritages include Aksum, Fasil Ghebbi, Gondar region, Harar Jugol the fortified Historic town, Konso cultural landscape, Lower Valley of the Awash, Lower Valley of the Omo, Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, Tiya, Simien National Park, Commemoration feast of the finding of the True Holy Cross of Christ, Fichee-Chembalaalla, New Year festival of the Sidama people, and Gada system, an indigenous democratic socio-political system of the Oromo.
