Abstract:
omestic tourism in a multicultural nation that has been divided or remain hostile to each other can be a
means of reducing tension and promoting dialogue, cross-cultural understanding and reconciliation
mechanism for socio-cultural and political crisis. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to explore the
role of domestic tourism as a reconciliation mechanism for socio-cultural and political crisis in the
multicultural society of Ethiopia. To achieve this objective, quantitative and qualitative case study method
and, purposive and stratified sampling techniques were employed for questionnaire, focus group discussion
and interview data gathering instruments. Tourism stakeholders, experts and domestic tourists were
participated in the study. Quantitative data was hand-coded into SPSS and analyzed by descriptive statistics,
correlation, ANOVA and independent t-test. The interpretation of qualitative data was used a thematic
descriptive approach that utilizes a theme summary data and unattributed quotes to illustrate dominant issues
in respondents’ own words. Generally, both the qualitative and quantitative data revealed that domestic
tourism plays a great role as a crisis shock absorber, conflict resolution mechanism, bringing social justice,
easing social tension, tolerance, mutual respect and reconciliation for a divided society. The t-test elucidated
that there was a statically significance difference between the single and married respondents on domestic
tourism’s role but their average mean was fairly above the average mean value. However, the ANOVA and ttest elucidated that there was no statically significance difference between sex, age, experience and
educational qualification groups of respondents on the issue of domestic tourism’s role as a reconciliation
mechanism. Finally, based on the results of the study involvement of religious and cultural institutions and
their leaders, and government should encourage reconciliation work through domestic tourism were some of
the recommended points to the sustainable development of domestic tourism and national reconciliation
