The Ethiopian government hopes for a "significant increase" in tourism's contribution to the economy, which is now 7.4%, the country's Tourism Minister Nasise Challi told Sputnik Africa.
"If we compare the number of tourists that we saw this year to the number of tourists pre-pandemic in 2019, we have surpassed that target," Challi added.
Among the measures taken by the authorities to promote tourism in Ethiopia, the minister mentioned the establishment of the Ministry of Tourism as a separate ministry, followed by a lot of government spending in the sector.
"For the past 2-3 years, we've been consistently investing in tourism infrastructure, especially adding new roads to new destinations, new airports, new airstrips, and other basic tourist infrastructure," Challi pointed out.
Another measure that "makes it easy for travelers to come and visit" Ethiopia is "the visa reform that allows [the country] to either provide e-visa service or on-arrival visas for more than 190 countries."
Commenting on the concerns that the mainstream media often creates a very distorted image by reporting biased information about situations in some countries, including the BRICS nations, the minister said "tourism is a vehicle for peace all over the world."
"Ethiopia has been a victim of that for a very long time. So we really appreciate having allies [BRICS] that can advocate for each other," she said.
She highlighted that "it is important to advocate the truth and accurate information about each other and also for others in the world to do the same because all human beings share the same aspirations."
The minister underlined that collaboration in promoting and educating the people of BRICS countries about each other "would help in bridging the cultural differences and the stereotypes that come with those differences."