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Walia Special Edition on the Bale Mountains (2011) - Zoologische ...

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Tourism in <strong>the</strong> <strong>Bale</strong> <strong>Mountains</strong> Nati<strong>on</strong>al Park<br />

The <strong>Bale</strong> <strong>Mountains</strong> Nati<strong>on</strong>al Park is located 440 km south of Addis Ababa or approximately an<br />

eight hour drive. The <strong>Bale</strong> <strong>Mountains</strong>, with BMNP at its heart, are a unique natural heritage with<br />

outstanding beauty, diverse attracti<strong>on</strong>s and great tourism potential. Despite its wildlife, trekking,<br />

scenic and o<strong>the</strong>r attracti<strong>on</strong>s, lack of tourism infrastructure, planning and marketing currently inhibit<br />

BMNP from fulfilling its tourism potential. In 2004, scheduled domestic flights into Goba were<br />

stopped, making <strong>the</strong> <strong>on</strong>ly access to <strong>the</strong> park by road (which is poor quality), using private or hired<br />

vehicles or local buses. Fur<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>the</strong>re is <strong>on</strong>ly <strong>on</strong>e lodge in <strong>the</strong> entire park, located at <strong>the</strong> headquarters,<br />

which is poorly equipped and maintained. There is no hot water or functi<strong>on</strong>al showers and despite<br />

a kitchen being available <strong>the</strong>re are no cooking facilities, tourists must bring <strong>the</strong>ir own stoves and<br />

cooking equipment. Although <strong>the</strong>re are designated camp sites for those who come to <strong>the</strong> park to<br />

trek, <strong>the</strong>se are sites <strong>on</strong>ly with no facilities and tourists must bring all <strong>the</strong>ir own camping and cooking<br />

equipment, making it difficult for those who travel from Addis by public transport. It is assumed as a<br />

result of this poor accessibility and poor infrastructure, tourist numbers are far less than its potential.<br />

Business Planning - A Market and Customer Analysis<br />

In 2010, as part of <strong>the</strong> BMNP Business Plan development, a detailed analysis was carried out <strong>on</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> market and customer trends in tourism to BMNP as well as a detailed financial and benefit<br />

assessment. Below summarises <strong>the</strong>se findings but fur<strong>the</strong>r details can be found in <strong>the</strong> BMNP BP<br />

2010.<br />

Figure 1 shows <strong>the</strong> nati<strong>on</strong>alities and <strong>the</strong>ir residence of tourists coming to <strong>the</strong> BMNP over<br />

<strong>the</strong> past 3 years. It can be seen that <strong>the</strong> highest percentage of visitors are internati<strong>on</strong>al tourists living<br />

abroad, followed by internati<strong>on</strong>al visitors residing in Ethiopia, with <strong>the</strong> proporti<strong>on</strong> of Ethiopians<br />

visiting being <strong>the</strong> sec<strong>on</strong>d lowest compared to Ethiopians living abroad. Figure 1 shows that while<br />

<strong>the</strong> proporti<strong>on</strong> of internati<strong>on</strong>al tourists in <strong>on</strong> <strong>the</strong> increase, both <strong>the</strong> percentage of foreigners living in<br />

Ethiopia and Ethiopian nati<strong>on</strong>als coming to <strong>the</strong> park are decreasing. Data shows that <strong>the</strong> majority<br />

of visitors to <strong>the</strong> park are from Europe (76%) followed by Africa (20%), Americas (8%) and <strong>the</strong><br />

remaining coming from Australia, Middle east and Asia (3%, 3% and

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