On 3 May 2019 David Desta argued in Addis Standard that local media had repeated tourist arrival figures without enough scrutiny, and that Ethiopia’s tourism sector needed cleaner reporting if policy and investment talk were to mean anything.
Tourism boasts are a favorite reform-era prop. When arrival stats are fuzzy, hotels, parks, and communities get sold a fantasy while infrastructure and security realities decide whether visitors return.
Abiy Ahmed’s government liked soft-power images of Lalibela and Danakil. Honest numbers are less glamorous and more useful than ministerial optimism.
As business/tourism reference, the op-ed remains a small governance lesson: count carefully, or the sector becomes another brochure economy.
Sources: Addis Standard