Potentials and Challenges of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church to Heritage Tourism Development: The Case of Entoto Complex, Addis Ababa

Abstract

This paper is intended to assess heritage tourism potentials of the EOTC in general and Entoto complex in particular. To achieve the objective the researcher employed qualitative research method. Both primary and secondary data are used to assess the potentials. To collect the primary data interview was undertaken with selected church servants, community elders and other concerned individuals. In addition, deep and continuous personal observation was conducted to fill the gaps of interview and other sources gathered from various literatures. The analysis of the study revealed that Entoto complex has huge heritage tourism potentials. In this regard, the church of St. Mary and St. Raguel with their mural paintings and precious antiquities, the different historic houses found in the churchyards of Entoto St. Mary , the palace and bedroom of Emperor Menelik II and the ESMCM with its possession are worth of mentioning. The different houses’ ruins, the rock-hewn cave of Entoto St. Raguel are also having considerable importance. Even though Entoto complex has huge heritage tourism potentials and diversified values, they have not yet been utilized due to the presence of various hindering factors. Lack of tourist facilities, lack of heritage conservation and absence of documentation are among the factors that hinder heritage tourism development of Entoto complex. Finally, I recommended that the collaboration of the administrations of the two churches with different stakeholders such as local people, private sector and the Addis Ababa culture and tourism office is very imperative to exploit the heritage tourism potential of the complex and mitigate the hindering factors.