Research Article :
The main objective of
this study was to assess the challenges and prospects of community-based
ecotourism in the Maichew cluster, a case of Ofla woreda. Community based
eco-tourism has become rapidly the most fundamental in-strument to meet
sustainable tourism and livelihood option demand across the world at large and
Developing Countries in particular. In order to achieve the objective of the
study, both primary and secondary data were generated by employing qualitative
(using case study, focus group discussion, in depth interview and on spot
observation) and quantitative (mainly using household survey and visitor survey
questionnaires) methods. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were
used to select 3 CBET sites and 90 sample households respectively. The
quantitative data was analyzed using fre-quency, percentage and mean when
appropriate while qualitative data was used to triangulate and substantiate the
study. The research investigated the challenges for developing CBET in the
study area. On the other hand, the study also identified several potentials of
CBET in the study area. In addition, the issues for empowering community based
eco-tourism in terms of economical, social, political any psychological
empowerment was identified. The result of the study reveals that several
challenges for empowering community based tourism in the study area, Low level
of knowledge, interest and perception of local community towards CBET; the resource
ownership questions like land; capacity problems of the MCs and local level
government office staff; lack of legal registration of CTEs; conflicting policies
and legislations; communities expectation for immediate financial benefits;
quality and standard of products and services; lack of cooperation among
stakeholders; emerging challenges on marketing and booking; etc. However,
several opportunities like strategic location of the sites, change of local
attitude toward CBET, hospitality of local community, the potential tourism
resources of the area, successful efforts on marketing and promotion, etc. are
identified as a positive factor for CBETE. The issues of CE process is in its
infant stage despite local communities showed high interest levels to involve
in identifying problems, management, decision-making, problem solving,
equitable benefit sharing and tourism operation. Thus, economical, social,
political and psychological empowerments of community are not well practiced.
To conclude, even if community empowerment can play central role to achieve
sustainable tourism development and livelihood option, the process is very
limited and in its infant stage in terms of economical, social, political and
psychological empowerments. Over the last half century, the growth and development of tourism as both
a social and economic activity has been remarkable. International tourism is
notable in particular for its rapid and sustained growth in both volume and
value since 1950. Technological developments, particularly in air travel;
increases in personal wealth; such as holidays with pay, all of which have
enabled more people to travel internationally and more frequently or, more
succinctly, contributed to greater international mobility. In 1950, total
worldwide international tourist arrivals amounted to just over 25 million. By
the start of the new millennium, that figure had risen to more than 687 million
and since then international tourism has continued its inexorable growth
(Sharpley, 2009). In 2009, over 880 million international arrivals were
recorded (UNWTO, 2010). The substantial growth of the tourism activity clearly marks tourism as
one of the most remarkable economic and social phenomena of the past century.
For many developing countries tourism is one of the main sources for foreign
exchange income and the number one export category, creating much needed
employment and opportunities for development. Globally, as an export category,
tourism ranks fourth after fuels, chemicals and automotive products. The
contribution of tourism to economic activity worldwide is estimated at 5%. Its
contribution to employment tends to be relatively higher and is estimated in
the order 6-7% of the overall number of jobs worldwide (UNWTO, 2010). According
to UNWTO tourism highlights of 2010, the overall export income generated by
inbound tourism including passengers transport, exceeded US$ 1 trillion in
2009, or close to US$ 3 billion a day. Tourism exports account for as much as
30% of the worlds exports of commercial services and 6% of overall exports of
goods and services (UNWTO, 2010). Apart from a vehicle for economic
development, tourism is also increasingly becoming at important sector for
instigating cultural and environmental conservation in many countries. In this regard, Ethiopia is among the worlds least developed countries
and some people living below a poverty line equivalent to 45 US cents per day
out of a population of 90 million; and up to 13 million people at risk of
starvation. Over 80% of its population is lives in rural areas, with agriculturally-based
livelihoods and extremely low levels of off farm income (Mann, 2012). However, as one mechanism of tackling poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, the
potential of tourism was mentioned in World Bank report. Tourism is one of the
major economic sectors of Ethiopia and the government has labeled tourism as a
priority sector, in part as a tool for poverty alleviation (Mann, 2006). It
would be no exaggeration to say that Ethiopia has a cornucopia of attractions
of many types ranging from landscape scenery, wildlife, culture, history, and
archeology sites that set it apart from its neighbors. Its natural and cultural
assets are unique and potentially very productive for CBET. The challenge is thus to formulate tourism development strategies which
specifically harness this benefits into the local community. The effectiveness
of tourism in the future will ultimately depend on what form of tourism has to
be developed and who will benefit, as well as where, when and how it can be
appropriately implemented. Different types of tourism will assume different
forms and functions, and how they are developed and managed will also influence
the degree to which they can contribute to development. In this regard, CBET
has emerged as one of the most promising methods of integrating natural
resource conservation, local income generation and cultural conservation in the
developing world (Miller, 2004). World ecotourism summit held in Canada by the
year 2002 acknowledged the significant and complex social, economic and environmental
implications of tourism and the role of ecotourism in ensuring sustainability
of the overall tourism by increasing economic benefits for the host community
(TIES, 2000). Although CBET has long been taken as a sustainable development strategy
for developing countries like Ethiopia, no such community-owned and managed
products have come to the fore in a lasting and meaningful way. This is not to
say of course, that there are no attempts to develop CBET destinations rather
community participation in tourism has been exceptionally poor and genuine CBET
is rare. However, CBET will only bring benefits to conservation and communities
if good quality, viable ecotourism products, which reflect market demand, are
created and actively promoted. The tourism policy of Ethiopia which is endorsed
in 2009 highlights some specific provisions for active participation of local
people in tourism. Yet, despite this policys call for community involvement in
tourism, there is still no formal mechanism for community participation. CBET developments are most of the times aimed to realize the betterment
of livelihoods for the people suffering from different problems caused by food
shortage, population pressure, marginality and decline in productivity of land.
Denman state that in CBET communities assume substantial control over, and
involvement in; its development and management, and a major proportion of the
benefits remain within the community. In line with this it is increasing the
strategy to help address economic and social problems in local communities, and
as an appropriate and effective tool of environmental conservation (Denman,
2001). The full and effective participation of local communities in the planning
and management of ecotourism has become increasingly debatable issue. At best,
ecotourism projects tend to aim for the involvement of local people, and at
worst, ecotourism projects can ignore the issue of local participation
completely. Such projects frequently fail after a relatively short period of
time (Garrod, 2003). The participatory planning approach implies recognition of
the need not only to ensure that local stakeholders become the beneficiaries of
tourism development but also to integrate them fully into the relevant planning
and management processes. This is particularly important in the context of
ecotourism, where genuine sustainability can only truly be aspired to with the
effective participation of all of the stakeholders involved (Garrod, 2003). Even though the degree of benefit accruing to the local economy is
unknown; in Ethiopia there are already small scale benefits to the community in
general and the poor in particular with considerable difference between regions
and the destinations it is unanimously known that the major proportion of the benefits
go to the tour operators that are mainly based in the capital city. Next to the
tour operators, the local tour guides benefit significantly at local levels.
The elites or influential people are also among the most benefited (Kubsa,
2007). This situation leads to debate on tourism development in Ethiopia.
Monopoly of the sector by small groups of private investors means that adverse
impact on the environment and local communities have received insufficient
attention (Connell and Rugendyke, 2008). However, the more local residents gain
from tourism, the more they will be motivated to protect the areas natural and
cultural heritage and support sustainable tourism activities (Liu, 2003). Moreover, many challenges still lie ahead in promoting CBET at start up
and operational phase on the demand and supply side of tourism management. The
challenges facing the tourism industry are complex and numerous. Since tourism
sector is a growing sector, most of the local communities are not aware about
the economic, social, cultural and environmental significance and impacts of
tourism sector and some of the members of local community will not support the
community based ecotourism projects. In addition, studies indicate that many
community based projects have failed, usually because of lack of financial
viability (Mitchell and Muckosy, 2008). As a result, it is still rare to find
examples where projects are not initiated, planned or managed by forces outside
the community (Belsky, 1999; cited by Miller, 2004). On the other hand, when the NGOs fully implement the project and hands
over management to the community, the project can easily fail because there has
not been either initial or sustained support on the part of the community.
Despite these obstacles, developing ecotourism is not unreachable idea, but a
project that can be realized if the community is embraced and supported by
efficient communication and cooperation between the various stakeholders so as
to improve the livelihood of rural communities. CBET initiatives all faced some
difficulties and constraints in their due course of development and operation
to achieve sustainable development, but their experiences provide lesson for
others. As a driving force, approaches followed to develop and integrate CBET as
a livelihood diversification option, the extent and type of challenges and
opportunities faced during the entire phases of CBET development require
thorough study. Some researchers have done studies on community based ecotourism in
different parts of Ethiopia. These researches have mainly focused on surveying
potentials for community based ecotourism development and value of ecotourism
for wildlife conservation and economic development (Micheal, 2008; Cherinet,
2008; Sewbesew, 2010). However, study on the level community empowerment tasks
carried out to develop CBET, challenges faced and opportunities realized are
remain untouched. In an attempt to bridge these gaps, the study focus on
empowering CBET by taking Maichew
cluster, Ofla woreda as a case study. The reason why this site is selected as an area of study, Maichew cluster, Ofla woreda has a
tremendous potential of cultural and natural heritages but from these resources
the local community didnt benefit and there is no community based eco-tourism
empowerment project which are mainly support the local community livelihood.
So, the majority of the households in the area are categorized as chronically
food insecure and there are no CBETE practices to improve the livelihood of the
local communities as a whole. Besides, no CBET study has been done so far on
issues of empowering CBET. With this assumption this research initiated to
study in Ofla woreda. Description of The Study
Area Ofla is one of the five rural woredas in South Zone
of Tigray region that has 20 tabias/ 18 rural tabias & 2
urban tabias. Its geographical location is in between 39°31 E longitude,
12°31 N latitude. It is bordered with Endamohoni woreda in the North, Raya
Azebo woreda in the North East, Alamata woreda in the South East and Amhara
regional state in the West. The woreda capital is called Korem & is located
172 km from regional capital and 663 km from Addis Ababa. Its area is
approximately 1086.55 sqkm or 133500 ha. The wereda comprises 25% plain land, 20% gentle
slopping, 15% undulating and rugged terrain and 40% steep mountains. It has a
total area of 133,500 hectares. Out of this 25275 (18.9%) hectares are
cultivated land, 24340 (18.2%) hectares grazing land, 44635 (33.4%) hectares
forest and bush land, 1457 (1.1%) hectares lake area and the rest 37796 (28.3%)
are waste lands from all tabias of the study area Whereas it is focused on only
three major eco-tourism tabias Ofla woreda, they are Hashenge, Menkere and
Mifsas Bahri, these three tabias are bounded by Lake Ashenge. The study tabias
are characterized by undulating surface having flat lands and mountainous
chain. The mountains that surround the flat grazing land, cultivated land and
lake area are characterized by gentle to very steep slopes with average
elevation ranging from 2440 to 3600 m above sea level (Habtom 2010). There are three agro-climatic Zones in the Wereda
with greater domination of the high land or “dega type. The dega zone comprises
about 42% of the Wereda followed by “woina dega” and “kola” 29% each. Rainfall
has two seasonal occurrences in a year. During the kremt season, rainy season, it ranges from 450-800mm and it reaches
between 180-250mm during Belg season. The highest rainfall under normal
condition usually recorded during the July month. The Wereda has moderate type
of temperature that usually extends between 6o c to 32o
c. Moreover, about 33.4% area of Ofla Wereda is covered by natural vegetation
and is among the few areas to have such large tree cover in the southern zone
of Tigray (OWWSSP, 2004/5). The livelihood of the region depends on subsistence
farming. Livestock husbandry and crop production play a major role in the
subsistence farming. The dominant farming system is a highland mixed farming
system. The most serious problem for the agricultural production is the
shortage of land holding, ranging between 0 and 0.75 ha per household. As a
result, farmers are informally owning and cultivating the land up to the lake
boundary and some part of the upper sloppy areas which causes much sediment
accumulation in the lake. Data
Instruments: To undertake this study, both primary and secondary
data were generated by employing both qualitative (using focused group
discussion, in depth interview and on spot observation) and quantitative
(mainly using household survey and visitors survey questionnaires). The subjects of the study are both male and female
from the host community of the selected CBET sites. The total sample is 90
households using the following sample size determination formula adapted from
Israel (1992).
The selected study sites have a total of 557
households; out of which 291, 80 and 186 households live in Ashenge, Menkere,
and Mifsas Bahri respectively. By using the above formula, the sample size
becomes 84.779 households. Accordingly the sample size made 90 HHs. The
distributions of sample size across the CBET sites were proportionally selected
based on their size of households. Accordingly 47, 13 and 30 sample households
were taken from Ashenge, Menkere, and Mifsas Bahri CBET sites respectively. As
far as sampling technique is concerned first, the study area and the study
sites are selected with non-probability sampling technique purposively even
though the sample households were identified using probability sampling
technique.
Questionnaires consists of both open and closed
ended questions, were used to obtain information from the selected samples of
90 households from three major CBET sites of Ofla woreda. Questionnaire consisting of both open and closed ended
questions were prepared in English to generate data from 21 tourists who
visited three CBET sites of the study area during the filed research period. In
addition to questionnaire, focus group discussion (FGD) is the most important
data collection tool to generate the qualitative information. In general, The
FGDs were conducted in the selected three study sites.
Meaning each CBET sites was one FGD. For these, a
checklist of issues was prepared and the participants of FGDs was composed of
Management Committees, community representatives, religious leaders, local tour
guides, local service providers, guards and other stakeholders. The researcher
had a role of facilitating the discussion and took note on important
reflections on pre- arranged thematic issues on community role in tourism
activities and community based eco-tourism empowerment. For the purpose of this
study semi-structured face to face key informant interviews were conducted with
five different groups which account for a total of ten key informants. They
were taken as key informants based on their knowledge and responsibility in
relation to community based ecotourism in the study area. For each interviewee
group, independent checklists were prepared. Finally, to supplement the
information using different instruments, on spot observation were by the
researcher. On-spot observation was the other component of data collection
process. It includes observation of the major tourism resources, infrastructure
patterns, tourism activities, tourist services and facilities; natural
resources particularly forest and lake management and its coverage in the study
area, social interaction of tourists with host communities, manmade (cultural)
attractions like churches and monasteries, archaeological sites and the
conservation practices, and accommodation conditions of visitors. Thus, the
researchers opinions on his visit of the study area were assets to the analysis
of data gathered form other tools. In an effort to make this research more
valid, creditable and applicable secondary sources which are important to the
study were review. For this purpose, both published and unpublished sources
were investigated thoroughly especially books, web pages, policy directives,
reports, project papers, magazines, newspapers, annual action plans and so on
were critically reviewed. The secondary data (documents, reports, action plans,
etc.) were collected from the study area (Ofla
woreda) and Tigray Culture and
Tourism offices as well as other concerned bodies.
Data Analysis and Interpretation: The information gathered from different sources,
were compiled to manage in the most appropriate way. During the completion of
the data collection, the household information and visitors survey information
were coded and entered into Statistical Package analysis. The results of
analysis were interpreted and analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency,
ratio, mean and standard deviation). Qualitative data obtained using FGDs, key
informant interviews and observations were analyzed in word narrative way.
Pictures, Tables and a simple bar charts were used for present the results of the
study.
This
section focuses on the analysis of the basic characteristics of the sample
households. This include the principal demographic variables such as gender,
age, level of education, marital status, family size and source of income and
status of agriculture to support the livelihood of the 90 sample households
collected from the three CBET sites selected from the study area. In order to
identify variations the data are summarized from CBET sites.
Gender, Age and Educational
Status of Sample Households: The survey result of this study for the characteristics of gender, age
and educational background of heads of household is well presented below. The
overall sample population is 90 (16.2 percent of total household in the sites)
of which 75.6 % and 24.4 % respectively constitutes males and females. The
distribution of households by the CBET sites accounts 52.22%, 14.44% and 33.33
% for Ashenge, Menkere and Mifsas Bahri respectively. With
respect to age structure of sample households, the maximum and minimum age of
the sample households are 85 and 21 years respectively. The majority of heads
of households (32.2%) belong to the age category ranging between 41 to 50
years. The sample households between 15 to 30 years old and above 60 years old
account for about 15.6% each. The rest of the sample population is 18.9%
and17.8% were those aged between 31 to 40 years and 51 to 61 years
respectively. While, the mean age of the sample household heads is 46.69 years,
the mean age of sample household heads of Ashenge, Menkere and Mifsas Bahri
CBET sites is 46.83, 44.81 and 51 years respectively. The data reveal that, on
the average, the households are in the adulthood age category, which could have
positive implication in terms of labor resource for tourism sector. An
educated household in the tourism sites is able to understand technical and
scientific concepts. Thereby actively participate in tourism development tasks,
perform tourism activities up to the standard and manage tourism products
properly. All these elements excel the performance of the community tourism
destinations and result in a positive return of tourism. According
to survey result, in terms of educational background of the sample respondents,
illiteracy rate is found to be higher. Almost 61.1% of the sample household
heads are reported to be illiterate without having formal education. Likewise,
16.7 % of the sample population was reported that they can read and write. Most
of these households have got limited access to basic education, which is
claimed to be acquired through some informal and traditional religious
education as well as adult literacy campaigns. On the other hand, about 16.7%
and 2.2% of the sample households are found between grade 1-4 and 5-8
respectively. Similarly, about 1.1% of the sample population attended a high
school and preparatory level (between 9 to 10 and 11 to 12 grades). Of the
total sample size, only a very few (2.2%) of the respondents had acquired one
year certificate from teachers training college. An
effort has been made to see the educational status of the sample household
heads in the respective CBET sites. Accordingly, 63.8%, 69.2% and 53.3% of the
sample households in Ashenge, Menkere and Mifsas Bahri are illiterate
respectively while 19.1%, 7.7% and 16.7% of sample households of Ashenge,
Menkere and Mifsas Bahri CBET sites can read and write but they dont have any
formal education. On the merit of this survey, one could say that in the study
area included in the sample, the household heads that have no education and low
level of education dominate the entire population. Generally, as shown in the
above table, 77.8% of household heads were not educated. This in turn, could
have its own implication in relation to community based ecotourism development. To view Table 1, click below According
to the interview with the cooks of the CTHEs and CTFEs, there is significant
association between marital status of the females and community tourism where
majority of the cooks of CTHEs are single and divorced. With respect to family
size per household, as it is depicted in table 2 below about 54.4% of the
sample households contain between 4 to 6 family members. The mean family size
of the sample households was 5.57 persons. The mean household size of Ashenge,
Menkere and Mifsas Bahri CBET site households was 6.02, 5.15 and 5.03 persons
with standard deviation of 2.12, 0.86 and 0.57 persons respectively. The
family size data reveal that the great majority of the households (83.3% of the
total sample population) are found to have four or more household family
members of families under households. This in turn implies that as the family
size increases, the dependency ratio of the households will be high. As a
result, since current benefit sharing strategy of CTHEs from tourism is on
merit of the household heads membership, large family size results important
differences among the households income negatively. To view Table 2, click below To view Table 4, click below According to the survey result, the different
ecotourism potentials attractions of the Ofla woreda and its surrounding areas.
During the household survey and field observation study area and its
surrounding areas comprise impressive attractions of natural and cultural
settings that are the prominent sources of ecotourism potentials development.
The natural resources of the area are Forests, Hashenge Lake, Birds, Mammals,
Weather condition, Hot springs at the valley of the forest, Holla
waterfall and Mountain/landscape scenery (Hugumburda in menkere and Mifsas
Bahri tabias, Tsibet highest mountains in Tigray region, Ambalagie and
Alamata mountains are important for mountain trekking/climbing) while the
cultural attractions are dressing styles (such as bufie), Tigile (in Amharic),
cultural dances, local handicrafts, folklore/indigenous knowledge Mifsas Bahri
archaeological site and religious sites (mosques and churches such as Mehaber
Bekurie and St.maryy Adota are important religious sites for tourism
development). This shows that, Ofla woreda and its environs have prominent
ecotourism potentials that will be important for future ecotourism development.
According to (Keivan et al. 2006),
today, many countries are encouraged to allocate a sizeable amount of
investment to the tourism and ecotourism sector since tourism industry
generates high income and conserve the environment sustainably. In general, as it could be observed from finding, the
main natural ecotourism potential attractions are the lake, forests, mountains,
birds and as well as the wild mammals, which can attract tourists and may
contribute to the conservation of natural resources and improves the
livelihoods of the local community if they are developed. Holden (2003) also
acknowledged that the ecotourism resource in protected areas could generate
more revenues, which could benefit the local people and contribute to
conservation of protected areas.
The Ofla Woreda and its surrounding areas have
tremendous potential for community based ecotourism empowerment that can
provide the much needed employment and economic growth in the area. Due to
different factors and challenges the ecotourism activities were not carried.
The communities forwarded different point of view on how ecotourism may not
developed in the study area and its surrounding areas. The data or information
which was gathered from the survey (questioner) and focus group discussion is
almost similar. Therefore, According to the respondents, the remarkable
problems that hinder the ecotourism development can be generalized in different
factors and challenges. For details each factor is given below; In this part of data analysis
two fold of challenges: challenges faced on development of CBET and after CBET
are presented by triangulating both quantitative and qualitative data. Knowledge and Interest of
Community toward CBET: Knowledge and interest can affect the degree of community participation and
ownership in tourism development. Given that community participation ownership
is a crucial element of CBET, low level of knowledge and lack of community
interest in CBET development will affect the overall sustainability. Some
researchers proved that lack of tourism knowledge is critical barrier that
limits the ability of locals to participate in tourism development which
contributes to a lack of local tourism leadership and domination of external
agents. Limited awareness of CBET can contribute to false expectations about
the benefits of tourism lack of preparedness for the changes associated with
tourism. Lack
of knowledge of meaning and values of CBET is a significant factor that could
affect the participation of communities and efficiency of the tourism sector.
Accordingly as it is depicted on table 8 below, to know the extent of
understanding that the communities have about CBET; sampled households were
asked whether they know what CBET does mean. Majority (96.7%) of the sample
households were not familiar with the term CBET while the remaining (3.3%) of
the sample households knows the term CBET. Maichew tourism and culture office
coordinator and other focus group discussants express that lack o of the CBET
project is the main reason for the local communities were not aware about
tourism. But, currently some CBET activities on the way to conduct by the
different organizations like Tigray culture and Tourism, Mekelle University to
the community come to know about tourism and community based ecotourism. An
effort is also made to assess the knowledge of focus group discussants and
CTHEs staff. In the FGDs some members of the community are not proudly speak
that they know what CBET means. But
some local people defined CBET in their own understanding. Generally, focus
group discussants not similar feelings about CBET being, “a kind of tourism
runs by communities with sound participation of the community to achieve
the economic needs of the area.” In this definition the role of CBET in
environmental and cultural protection and conservation is forgotten. Informal
discussions with local community also reflect the same thing: focused on
economic advantages only. This could create extra challenge on the task of
ensuring environmental and socio-cultural sustainability. Corresponding
to this, the sample households were asked to illustrate the source of their
knowledge about CBET. Sampled respondents describe that there is no awareness
creation activities and projects as well as trainings made by the concerned
bodies. To better understand how the community feels and understands community
based ecotourism, sample households were also asked whether they know that any
community based ecotourism activities are not going on their kebeles. The
survey result depicted above in table 8 reveals that the entire sample
households (100%) were knew that their kebeles are not practicing CBET. In
line with this, MCs who are in charge of tourism management and participated in
the interview explain the current knowledge basis from perspective of benefit
that they are not sufficiently start. They stated, all seasons of
misunderstanding about tourism and resistances are still not over by the
community. In addition they said that, after many consultations and training it
is an opportunity to create awareness about CBET. In a
nutshell, the overall results of this study identify knowledge as a critical
barrier of CBET in two reasons. Firstly, lack of knowledge about the value of
CBET makes things too complicated i.e. resistance were the response of local
community. Secondly, lack of knowledge among the community about technical
tourism works like bookkeeping, marketing and booking, food preparation,
foreign language, etc. are the critical knowledge related barriers that CBET
have been facing in the study area. Of course, these issues are challenging
even among the literate communities. Here, it is better to underline that lack
of educated persons do not only limit the benefit of single households, but
also the benefits of the whole community. Thus, effective capacity building and
human resource development plan should be mandatory. Attitude and Feeling of
Community towards CBET: The attitude and feelings of communities toward community based
ecotourism activities is a fundamental challenge that many of the projects had
faced. The knowledge of community has direct effect over attitude. The attitude
of community toward CBET should be compared to the interest and thinking of the
community in other development projects and economies like agriculture. It is
likely that community members are much more interested in projects that they
can relate to than to a community based eco-tourism empowerment project or
means of livelihood (in this case agriculture to CBET), which is for most
community members something that they are not familiar with. This could be much
more complicated in projects where the initiative comes from external parties
like NGOs. If
the community is not interested in CBT development, the development of CBT will
fail, given that community participation is a crucial element of CBT. Therefore
it is important to investigate the communitys interest in CBT development first
and foremost. Thus, sample households were asked the question, do you think
that you will fulfill your livelihood without farming? As it is depicted in
table 9 below and 54.4% of sample households have negative feelings about the
new means of household while 45.6% of sample households express their interest
for other livelihood options. According
to this, sampled households were asked to express their feelings when the
project will be implemented in their kebeles. The summary of households
responses reflects that most of the sample households not interested about the
new alternative livelihood option (CBET). According to the result of FGDs
initially, the innermost looking toward the CBET was associated with the
intention to transferring local residents from their owned agricultural land to
other place.
Ofla
woreda tourism experts, reflecting their personal experience, noted that since
community-based ecotourism is a new concept for villagers, it has been
difficult to convince villagers to adapt to the innovative approaches and
procedures about CBET. This has been very much complicated in the first
CBET site,Ashenge. The people dont recognize the opportunities that
tourism could offer them. Awareness creation campaigns involving information
about CBET andits relationship with economic value and nature
conservation were not held in each kebeles by the stakeholders. Thus, a
strategy toget the consent of some communities still not developed. At
this level those who get not convincedwith the idea of CBET do the same
for the whole community. Eventually, without anyconsultation, training
and explanation made by several community members, the community neveragreed
about the CBET development. Lack of coordination: The
tourism industry is multi disciplines (multi-sectors) which incorporate a range
of stakeholders, including governments, the private sector, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), local communities, Religious leaders, and tourists. The
importance of community based ecotourism/ nature-based tourism is not lost on
national governments. They are fully aware to all institutions that it can
bring numerous socio-economic benefits to a country or locality, by generating
foreign exchange, creating local employment and raising environmental
awareness. As information obtained from the regional tourism office, tourism is
not at all a task of to be left for a single institution. Therefore, tourism
activity undertaking through the coordination of different institutions to
perform inter related activity. As the information obtained from the group
discussion, many participants agreed that there is no coordination between the
different sectors to develop ecotourism in the locality. While some
participants disagreed about this issues and the few participants does not
expressed about the cooperation of the different sectors. Lack of political will and capacity related problem of
Government offices: The
attention given to the sector by government is another critical challenge for
the development of CBET. While CBET is an important means of livelihood
diversification in developing countries like Ethiopia, the emphasis given to
tourism sector in general and CBET specifically is little. The institutional
structure in culture and tourism offices does not consider CBET. An important
indicator for this is the absence of any post to give guidance at federal,
regional and woreda level culture and tourism offices. Lack of possible guiding
principles and support on development of CBET product is identified as a
barrier too. Similarly,
the number of staff and their qualification is a big challenge for CBET
development work of the study area. At woreda level, culture and tourism
offices have only three staff where the manager is possibly working on the
political issues while the rest two employees are responsible for a collection
of works found in the office. Until, the time of this survey no experts of
Tigray Region Culture and Tourism Bureau and Ministry of Culture and Tourism
provide technical support for the CTEs. Besides, limitation of capacity on the
woreda level government offices is mentioned as a challenge by informants.
Culture and tourism related institutions should give due attention to CBET as
it is very decisive to achieve sustainable development. In this regard, the regional
and federal governments are expected to prepare a guide to CBET development and
a specialized marketing strategy which includes CBET as a core product in the
country.
Lack of Marketing and
promotional activities: The marketing and promotion activities done to promote the study area to
the potential customers are worth important as it is mentioned in the product
development part. The researcher identifies two options of marketing tourism
product of the study area: either the CTEs themselves or outsourcing the
marketing. However, capacity limitation of the community to perform the
marketing task is a critical challenge. In addition, limitation in terms of
lack of legal registration is limiting the CTEs action to outsource the
marketing task to somebody else through memorandum of understanding agreement
or contract. To these effects, now a day the marketing and booking become an
emerging challenge to the study area tourism activity. This is further
complicated with weak government intervention and attention.
As
the information obtained from the regional tourism office experts, most of the
countries tourism resources were almost unknown internationally and even by the
residents themselves, even those who have information about the countrys
tourism resource, the bad image that the country has retarded them not to come.
At the present time the Ministry of
Culture and Tourism, is responsible for developing and promoting the
tourism products of Ethiopia both inside the country and internationally.
However, the promotion still untouched on the natural attractions of the Tigray
region specifically in Ofla woreda. Therefore, the lacks of promotional and
marketing efforts have an influence in the tourism development. In addition,
during focus group discussion most of the participants agreed that lack of
promotional works to the natural resources of the study area can hinder the
community based eco-tourism development of the area. On
the other hand, CTGE have an interest to shoulder the marketing and booking
tasks carried out by the CTTSU. Now they are doing the marketing and booking
tasks by employing one booking and marketing officer at Mekele and took 20% of
the payment as their income for the marketing and booking they carried out.
However, they perform informally without agreement with CTTSU.
To
conclude, lack of agreement and cooperation against these challenges becomes a
critical barrier of marketing and promotion. Hence, for the time being the
regional culture and tourism and respective government offices should take the
leading role to discuss with relevant stakeholders on how and who should
managing the marketing and booking functions effectively so that income of
communities from the tourism business will not be in danger. This may involve
critical assessment of various options available, for instance, building the
existing internal capacity, empowering and legalizing the private enterprises,
forging partnership with private tour operators, and the like. In this
instance, respective government bodies should exercise their role to settle
this kind of issues.
Security Related Concerns: Criminal activity is probably
the greatest threat to the tourism industry. Occurrence of acts ofterrorism,
theft and other crises influence tourists flow to destinations. Tourists will
avoiddestinations perceived as unsafe. In Ofla woreda, significant
violent criminal activity directedagainst foreign tourists is rare. In
principle when the community is interested in tourism business,ensuring
security need of tourists becomes easy. The role of community in crime
protection ismore than everything as nothing is out of the sight of the
community. To guarantee security ofvisitors while they are in visiting
the forests and swimming in lake the luggage porters are taken instruction to supervise
theaction of community. The result of FGDs shows that initially in
relation to the negative feelingof the community towards tourism; there
were some security related issues directed to visitorslike throwing of
stones. The survey result depicted below in table 10 reveal that majority of
thesampled households (70%) report the absence of security problem
while the remaining sampledhouseholds (30%) alert that there is
security problem over the tourists. In the case of AshengeCTE the
question of tourist security is a big concern where more than 53% percent of
thesampled households were identified the problem of security over the
site. Three
major security related challenges are registered in the Ashenge. The MCs
identify bag snatchings and theft of Photo camera and a few night-time
robberies like theft of door and other materials on the grinding mill compound.
The issue of weak law enforcement and justice system is mentioned by the
majority of interviewees and all FGD participants held in Ashenge. The MCs of
Ashenge reflects their suffering on the justice system while they faced big
illegal matters like the aforementioned one. The justice organ there and police
organs are less successful to provide justice and take appropriate measure
against those who initiate and involve in illegal activities. Such
circumstances are reported eroding confidence of MCs in the ability of the
justice organ as a whole to bring justice. As a result, most of them preferred
to take their case to the local elders (Shimageles) than the Justice
system. To view Table 7, click below In
general, capacity related challenges are reasons to the overall attribute of
the CBET businesses. To ensure the success and sustainability of the project,
training need assessment has to be made for the community. Then technical
inputs should be provided to MC of community members, governments and service
providers. Inputs may include training on environmental issues, facilitation
skills, problem solving, report writing, micro-project/business design, project
implementation and management, implementation of relevant laws, and tourism
service techniques and management. The
last of these includes teaching CBET concepts, bookkeeping, accounting,
financial management, tour guiding, first aid, hygiene and sanitation, Basic
English conversation, computer skills, etc. Ensuring Quality and Standard
of CBET Products: A key
part of the businesses future sustainability lies with the ability of CTHEs and
CTGE to maintain quality in medium and long term. Quality does not necessarily
mean luxury, but attention to detail and understanding customer needs. There
are certain areas that cannot be compromised like, cleanliness and hygiene and
sufficient infrastructures being at the top of the list. Equally food should be
enjoyable to eat, beds should be comfortable and clean, and toilets need to be
clean. Careful monitoring of these elements will be the core part of any
quality control system. The quality of the product needs to be not just
maintained but improved. Limitation in capacity makes the service standards poor
gradually thereby dissatisfaction will be the feature of the product. Quality
and standard involves the character of staff of CBET business, communities
hospitality and food, transport, accommodation and other related service
quality and standard. As the information obtained
from the tourist survey that lack of infrastructure development is the main
problem for the development of eco- tourism. Generally infrastructure may
include road, hotels, air ports, water supply system, electric power,
communication system, Banking services and waste disposal facilities. The
respondents said that before they built up of the road from Addis to Mekelle
via Mehone, tourists were cross through the Ofla woreda. As a result, tourists
were observed ecotourism attraction of the area such as lakes and birds but now
since the main road were shift through Mehone tourists were not visited the
site. In addition as the information obtained from focus group discussion and
field observation there is no accessible road for observing different
ecotourism attractions in study area like the lake, the forest reserve. The
tourist survey result done to show what tourists feel about the overall
experience on the CBET site reflects that 71.4% and 28.6% of the respondents
rate their experience not excellent and average respectively. Even though, this
survey reveals negative looking of the guests since development come in the
world and some other competitive tourism products are open small improvements
need to be made on the top of maintaining the quality that was experienced by
customers at the start. Therefore, during field observation some quality
related challenges which seems simple but detrimental to the image of the area
are found. On Ashenge, Menkere and Mifsas Bahri CBET sites the accommodation
and infrastructural services are not functioning and there is a need to make
the services. Similarly, in both Ashenge and Menkere CBET sites, the
Accommodation services are not available. In
the discussion organized by Ofla woreda culture and tourism office held in the
Korem town participants mentioned declining of the cleanliness of the products
supplied in the private service providers. Some participants demonstrate the
lazy washing and absence of accommodation service. In addition, the tourism office
representative mentioned dropping off quality of the toilets as no one is
maintaining them properly and the restraints service have no well-organized and
qualified. Therefore, the tourists are complaining over it. The
other important area of CBET product qualities is the type and character of
transportation related with tour service. Transport carrying unit used to reach
the starting place of Hugumbrida forest and Ashenge Lake is not organized by,
local tour guides and/or the communities; but the surrounding town (Mekele and
Alamata) tour and travel agents have made arrangements on behalf of their
guests with some local vehicle operators. Donkeys are used for transporting
customers luggage. Horses are also used for transport purpose. The quality and
cleanliness of horses and donkeys should be kept in proper provision. For this
currently no suggestion and comment is collected from the visitors by the CTEs
and other bodies. Customer handling is also another critical element of
quality. Tourists were asked to rate the customer handling scale. Accordingly
71.4%, 19%, 4.8% of sample tourists rate the customer handling of the nearby
town tour and travel agents and service provider staffs are excellent, above
average and below average respectively while 4.8% of sample tourists have no
response
Equally
important, the service standard is dependent on the character of the staff
participating in service delivery. Staff of every tourism business organization
should give due attention to cleanliness and personal hygiene. They should
demonstrate the following grooming character; well-shaven or well-trimmed
facial hair, clean and well-presented hair, neat and tidy clothing, frequent
washing, appropriate use of deodorants or perfumes, fresh breath and either
neutral or pleasant body odors, clean and trimmed fingernails. The first of
staff are community tourism guides where guests come into contact. Quality of
guides is perhaps the single most important piece of infrastructure for the
tourists. The extent of knowledge and professionalism that guides have matters
the perceived performance of tourism too. To this end, tourists were asked to
rate the guiding service performance. Accordingly majority of the tourists
(67.7) rate the local guiding service as not excellent while 23.8% and 9.5%
percent of the sample tourists rate it as below average and average
respectively. Training in guiding technique and knowledge is vital. In line
with this, CTGE members were asked to explain the type of training they took to
be a tour guide. , the manager of CTGE, explained that by the time of CTGE
establishment criterias to select community tourism guide are not based on the
experience and academic back ground. Moreover, trainings were not planned to be
given for CTGE by government and other stakeholders. Underlining the strong language
skill of guides he stress on the need for further training on culture and
natural resources specific to the area. Similarly, the tourists comment on
improving of guides knowledge on the interpretation. Pertaining to guiding
facilities lack of tourist map showing route of the tourism sites are
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EmpowermentChallenges and Prospects of Community Based Eco-Tourism in Maichew Cluster, a Case of Ofla Woreda
Abstract
Full-Text
Introduction
Main body
Figure 1: Map of the study area, (Source: Own development by ARCH GIS Classification).Methods and Data
Instruments
Flowchart 1: Design of the Research.Result and Discussion
General Characteristics of Sampled Households
Table 1: Gender, Age and Educational Status distribution of the Sample HHs. (Source: Field Survey).
Distribution of Marital Status and Family Size of
Sample Households: The
marital status of the households indicates that the large majority heads of
households (86.7%) are married. In contrast, the percentage of sample
households who have never been married was very low: 3.3%. From the survey
result, it was also possible to learn about 5.6% of the sample households have
been living in broken families due to divorce while the rest 4.4% of sample
households were widowed.
Table 2: Marital Status and Family Size of Sample HHs. (Source: Field Survey, 2016).
Source of Income and Status of Agriculture to Support
Livelihood of Sample HHs: CBET is taken as one tool of sustainable economic development. However,
local economic diversity is important to the sustainability of community based
ecotourism projects. A potential problem in the development of ecotourism for
rural communities is creating economic dependence on the trendy, fluctuating
industry of international tourism (McLaren, 1998, cited by Cusack and Dixon,
2006, p.162). The main livelihood of the study area is agriculture, with
mixture of subsistence crops and livestock (OWGAC, 2015). According to the
household survey, the major source of income for the sample households is
agriculture, where about 95.5% of the respondents get income from agriculture.
However, other sources of income like trade, and salary and wage account 15.5%
and 13.3% respectively while sales of craft and other non-farm sources account
8.9% and 4.4% respectively.
Table 3: Source of income of Sample HHs. (Source: Field Survey, 2016).
In an
attempt to see the status of agricultural productivity and output to support
the livelihood of the sample households as it has been indicated in table 4
below, sample HHs were asked about the status of agriculture to support their
livelihood. From the survey result it is possible to understand that most
households in the study area do not possess adequate food production. The
majority (61.1%) of the sample households (87.2% in Ashenge, 46.2% in Menkere
and 50% in Mifsas) replied that agriculture is not sufficient to support their
families livelihood while about 38.9% of the total sample households reported
that agriculture is sufficient enough for their livelihood. Those respondents
who indicated the insufficiency of agriculture were also further asked to
mention the reason for insufficiency. The most frequently mentioned causes
include low productivity of land, large family size, drought, pest infestation,
livestock disease, lack of sufficient agricultural facilities etc.
Table 4: Adequacy of agricultural income for the sample HHs. (Source: Field Survey, 2016).
Moreover,
the officials of Ofla Woreda noted that even though due efforts have been made
to increase agricultural production through agricultural inputs, extension
packages and introduction of agricultural technology; the production increment
has been rather limited showing a marginal increase. Thus, alternative
livelihood strategies like CBET in this area are very crucial to solve the food
insecurity. However, it needs to be highlighted that the effectiveness of
managed ecotourism is influenced by the poverty level of the people who live close to the tourist sites.Eco-Tourism Potentials
of the Ofla woreda
Challenges of CBET
Development
To view Table 5, click below
Table 5: Distribution of HHs by their Knowledge of CBET. (Source: Own Field Survey, 2016).
To view Table 6, click below
Table 6: Attitude towards other means of livelihood. (Source: Own Field Survey, 2016).
Table 7: Prevalence of security problem in CBET sites. (Source: Own Field Survey, 2016.
Capacity Problem of the MCs: Most of the challenges of
community based ecotourism emanates from problems of capacity building. The
community has not yet taken the full control over tourism in the study area.
Unless, the community becomes empowered to do decisions on the business aspect
the sustainability of the sector is under quotation. In community based
ecotourism enterprises where the product is based entirely on local community,
the standard and sustainability will depend on existing and potential local
capacity especially to the MCs and staff. The extent of human empowerment
achieved through capacity building is challenge of CBET success. However,
the communities are not empowered enough to take the full decision making power
from concerned bodies. Head of Zone Culture and Tourism Bureau put forward that
there is no sufficient capacity building program in the study area, this is
a big challenge for the empowerment and achievement of community based
eco-tourism. The probable challenge is creating the CTHEs more empowered
and enables them to do the memorandum of understanding agreement signed by the
CTHEs with the private sectors and other organs too. Currently many of
decisions on the CBET are made by Woreda tourism office. For example fishing
activities and pricing of the tour is a good example. As far as, it is
community based ecotourism the local community in the form of its CTHEs should
be the decision makers instead of government. In fact, support and moderate
participation of them is critical. Obviously, with current human resource
capacity of the CTHEs, administration of booking and marketing activities by
communities would be impossible. In addition, setting the price of tours and
the fishing activities is not done without analyzing the propensity to pay and
other destination prices. Thus, since the community has no skill on this
consultation is critical at this point. When the price of tours and fishing is
set for the third time by government, the communities have no says over it.
Lack of language skill is another capacity related problem seen in the study
area.
To view Table 8, click below
Table 8: Distribution of sample HHs by their feeling towards visitors. (Source: Own Field Survey, 2016).
To view Table 9, click below
Table 9: Issues of community empowerment in Ofla woreda. (Source: Own Field Survey, 2016).References
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