POTENTIALS, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF AWRAMBA COMMUNITY FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT, SOUTH GONDAR, AMHARA, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Abstract Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange earning income, employment cultural exchanges, environmental protection or preservation of heritages and with its distinct advantages Tourism is postulated as one of important industry for poverty alleviation i.e. by creation of job opportunities, boosting up of sales of different goods and services such as agricultural products and handicrafts. The main purpose of this research was to assess potentials, challenges and opportunities of Awra Amba community for tourism development. This study employed descriptive research design to describe tourism development in the community using mixed research approach. The sum of 6 interviewees and a sample of 104 household, 25 tourists and 6 experts were selected by using purposive sampling and non-random sampling respectively. Questionnaire, interview, and observation were used as instruments of data collection. The Quantitative data collected using Questionnaire instruments was analyzed by frequency, percentage, with the aid of SPSS software version 20 and the results were presented using tables, graphs and charts ,while the qualitative data was analyzed through thematic analysis coding and triangulation into a set of categories. The result indicates that the most significant potential of the community were cultural: gender equality, geriatric care, working habit of the community, conflict management skill, whereas challenges that affect tourism development were lack of tourist facilities like, lack of standard hotel, lack of professional human power, poor service standard, and poor water supply whereas opportunities were economic like weaving work shop, employment, educational and development. Based on the findings, recommendations were forwarded to stakeholders of the tourism industry so that the industry would be advanced in tourism development in general and Awra Amba in particular.