Chebera Churchura: New Tourist Attractions of Ethiopia

Addis Ababa December 21/2023 (ENA) The “Elephant Paw Lodge”, a cluster of Chebera Churchura National Park and one of the tourism development projects initiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed will be inaugurated this weekend.  

The lodge is part of the premier’s tourism destination projects being constructed in the country through the ‘Dine for Nation” initiative. 

Tourism is one of the five pillars of the Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda as the country is endowed with immense potentials to develop the sector with a view to expediting the overall economy.  

To this end, the government of Ethiopia has been aggressively working on tourism development projects. 

Over the past five years, a number of tourism destination projects have been constructed in Addis Ababa through Dine for Sheger Initiative. 

By drawing experiences from Sheger projects, the premier initiated several other tourism development projects across the country. 

One of the initiatives is 'Dine for Nation' which aims at developing wonderful natural tourism destinations in Gorgora, Wonchi and Koysha located in Amhara, Oromia and South Western Ethiopia regional states, respectively.

The “Elephant Paw Lodge” is part of the Koysha project. 

Chebera Churchura is a new National Park established in South West Ethiopia region in 2005. The park is located between Konta and Dawro Zones. 

It provides refuge to 37 species of larger mammals. The park has populations of elephant, buffalo, greater Kudu, defassa waterbuck, lion, leopard, serval cats, hippopotamus and Warthog. It also has 140 species of birds of which 6 are endemic to the country. 
 
While inaugurating an international tourism expo organized in Addis Ababa few weeks ago, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that the world has scientifically proved that Ethiopia is a place where a fact about the origins of human being is located. 

“There would be no human being that doesn’t want to visit this. The highest and very lowest places are located in Ethiopia. We find the highest places at the Semen Mountains and Bale Mountains, as well as the lowest (place) Dallol Depression in Afar. There are also very hot and cold places in Ethiopia. In general, Ethiopia is a country with extremely extraordinary places,” he added. 

Several other destinations have also been under construction besides the extensive tourism promotion being held.  

The government believes in the fact that tourism has the potential to help accelerate the overall economic activities of the country as it offers great opportunities in terms of job creation, strengthening of infrastructure development and reduce poverty among other vital things. 
 
Unity Park, Entoto Park, Friendship Park, Science Museum, and the National Palace Museum are among the new tourism destinations built over the last years in the capital Addis Ababa as part of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s initiatives. 

These destination are now attracting several foreign and domestic tourists, it was learned. 

The tourism package, which was a single day in Addis Ababa city, is now elongated to 3-4 days due to the increase in the number tourist destinations in the city.
 
Envisioning to harness Ethiopia's immense tourism potentials to the benefit of the people, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reiterated that tourism development projects should also be seen from aesthetic point of view.
 
Ongoing tourism development destinations in different parts of the country will also follow suit for inauguration.