|
In his early 30s, Yonas Ambaye, tour
operation head of Experience Ethiopia Tour
and Travel Agency, is far from being
convinced that the festive mood created by
the Millennium hoopla would be anything
other than mere lavish extravaganza on the
part of the organisers.
For the observation of people like Yonas, in
spite of the full-fledged engagement in
promoting the Millennium festival, the
service sector has hardly seen anything
close to what has been talked about all year
long. From the look of things there is
little evidence, so far, to realise the
booming businesses serving the massive
arrival of visitors, be it foreign tourists
or the Diaspora, according to Yonas.
The source of pessimism on Yonas' part
originated from what is seen on the ground
that is too little and too late in any way
to change the situation up to the expected
level. He is of the opinion that neither
those businesses in the service sector nor
the country as whole will benefit any more
than the previous holiday seasons.
"Thanks to the fanfare in the state-media
about the intending exodus of Ethiopian
Diaspora from various foreign countries,
hotels could not resist the temptation of
raising their rates, which heightened the
source of worry on the part of the
cost-conscious foreign tourists, who would
have come to far a holiday in the same
period of time in the country," Yonas
pessimistically shares his observation.
Alarmed by the developments, many tourists
felt the pressure in terms of costly
services in the hotels and have lessened in
making advance bookings; he compared the
number of advance bookings made in the
previous holiday.
Well before the past New Year holiday
season, Ethiopians stretching from Mekelle
to Moyale and from Wellega to Wolwol have
attached themselves with the upcoming
Millennium festival and related
socioeconomic developments. Hotels, schools,
marts and even colleges, private and pubic,
were and are still in part of the mainstream
campaign to promote the Millennium.
The phenomenal anxiety manifestly witnessed
by the public at large has been interpreted
by mushrooming of new cafés and colleges
tagging their names with Millennium such as
Millennium Café and New Millennium College.
Although many business places express lots
of optimism in terms of market gains mainly
driven by the high season holiday mood at
the eve of the Millennium festival, the
standing statistics at hotels and tour
operators indicate little evidence to match
the expectation, as occupation of rooms in
hotels run well below the percentage
registered in off-season and that of
holidays during the same period last year.
However, sources from the Airline companies
operating in Ethiopia showed a significant
increment in the number of passengers
booking and travelling to Ethiopia in
comparison with last year's same period.
"Unlike hotels and tour operators hit by the
Millennium fever, as their expectation fell
far short of the target gain, however,
business for the national carrier seemed to
be unusual, as the number of passengers
increased and the frequency with which the
Ethiopian Airlines scheduled flights from
various capitals of the world have grown as
of June 2007," sources from Ethiopian
disclosed to Fortune.
As the holiday quickly approaches, the
frequency of flights between Addis Abeba and
the United States (US) increased to six up
from four before June 2007. Ethiopian
started to fly between Dubai and Addis Abeba
as frequently as two times a day.
The national carrier confirmed that because
of the high season of busy activities
prompted by the Millennium festival, the
company leased the 235 seats of two Boeing
767 aircraft.
Similarly, for the Yemania Airways, the
festive mood of the Millennium in Ethiopia
changed the way the airliner operates its
business prior to the June 2007.
According to Daniel Kidane, operation
manager of the Airways at Bole International
Airport, due to the busy schedule of
passengers flying into Ethiopia from the
Middle East, the company started to use
Boeing 767 aircrafts that carry 270
passengers, as opposed to the previous
aircraft in use that carries only 200
passengers.
Amid contrasting moods and controversial
issues, the central point on which the whole
affair of the Millennium saga revolves
around is the Millennium Festival National
Council, whose executive director, Seyoum
Bereded, views the Millennium festival
through a different spectacle by weighing
the false premises pressing pressure upon
the life of many local residents versus the
actual aim of the Millennium that would be
the new beginning for those Ethiopians at
home to change the bad image of the
country.
"The Millennium festival is not going to be
all about September 11, 2007; it is going to
take place by targeting neither the foreign
visitors nor the Diaspora. It mainly targets
the local people," Seyoum stressed.
"Although there is no doubt that the
festival at the first day would be a unique
event in modern history of this country, the
festival will be celebrated for one solid
year," Seyoum added. "Viewed in this light,
he sees no shortcomings."
Even so, foreign guests might not be
expected to arrive in bigger numbers at the
beginning of the holiday season, as the
African heads of state and government
officials, as well as those other
dignitaries will be coming to the country
for the festival during May 2008 on the
'African Week', Seyoum confirmed. The event
must not be turned into a bonanza by
increasing prices of goods owing to the
arrival of foreign guests in the country, as
that would harm the common men and women at
the end of the day, Seyoum warns.
Although service providers like Ghion Hotel
Enterprise, one of the largest hospitality
managers in the country, was said to make a
30pc adjustment by increasing the rates of
the services it provides ahead of the
holiday, the claim would not be supported by
Mulugeta Eshete, manager of the marketing
and planning department at Ghion Hotel, who
rather agreed on the plan to increase the
rate of in-hotel and catering services,
changes he says have nothing to do with the
Millennium.
"The plan to readjust the rates in some
services in the hotel was essentially driven
by the inflation and this should be done to
survive in the market," Mulugeta said,
contesting price hike claims.
Mulugeta agreed that the adjustment of the
rate in the hotel facilities that would be
effective some time in the future should not
include those other resorts managed under
Ghion Hotels located in the historic sites.
The effort to disclose the percentage of
increments planned by Ghion Hotel has not
materialised, as Mulugeta declined to
suggest.
The state-owned National Tours Operation (NTO)
tells a different story, claiming the
Millennium paved the path for better
business opportunities, as advance booking
and frequent tours by visitors kept NTO busy
as of June 2007, more so than the previous
year's holiday season.
According to Abate Kassa, head of the tour
and travel sales department at NTO, although
the aftermath of the May 2005 national
elections seriously affected the
organisation in terms of turn out in the
number of foreign tourists, the mood of
Millennium festivities revived the
opportunity for the business, as more and
more bookings were made.
"The months of October and November 2007,
and all the way to January 2008, are defined
to be a high tourist season mainly due to
traditional and religious holidays," Abate
disclosed.
As far as those foreign tour operators are
concerned, a United Kingdom (UK)-based
international travel agency, TCS and Star
Quest, enjoyed far larger numbers of
tourists flocking to Ethiopia through their
respective offices and have registered
better revenue from this holiday season than
they had grabbed last year during the same
period, sources from the companies disclosed
to Fortune.
As a result, in October there will be 100
tourists using these businesses, who would
fly into Ethiopia and NTO would have to
charter the Fokker planes from Ethiopian
Airlines for the visitors to tour Lalibela's
rock hewn churches. In the previous year,
companies would have waited the whole year
to register 60-80 tourists, sources
confirmed.
Given the officially estimated 300,000
Diaspora who are expected to flock into the
country for the Millennium, many of whom
would make their first ever overseas travel,
if this really happens, they would be on a
spending spree, as there would be so many
outings and parties, said Feyiftu Tilahun,
an employee of Sheba Travel Agency. However,
this situation remains to be a fantasy since
there are people booking to travel out of
the country and not many of them have been
seen arriving.
The huge gap of information in relation to
the Millennium festival lies between the
Millennium Secretariat and the general
public, as the latter expects the 300,000
visitors to be airborne during September.
Such belief pushed many landlords to
increase the rate of rental houses expecting
better offers from the well-to-do guests
coming from overseas to the anxiety by many
of the local residents.
Based on the observation made by Fortune,
with few days remaining before the holiday,
most of the hotels' rooms are neither
occupied with guests nor being booked for
the Millennium holiday.
A typical instance of this phenomenon is
Hotel De Leopol. Its room booking rate
currently is running below 67pc at the
height of the Millennium festival, as
opposed to last year's experience in which
the Hotel was fully occupied, sources from
the hotel disclosed. However, the Hotel's
source cited that, as the Millennium nears,
at least 90pc of the rooms are expected to
be occupied.
On the other hand, at bigger hotels like
Imperial, neither the volume of bookings nor
the number of guests occupying the rooms are
different seen from any other high season in
the past, a Hotel source confirmed.
People like Yonas face the dilemma between
how to capitalise on the festive mood of
which many people expect a lot of things to
happen and the holiday that in a strange way
scared away his guests whose earlier
intention to travel to Ethiopia under his
watch is being postponed due to readjustment
of rates. Saddened by the claimed 30pc
increases on the rate in the hotel services
of the Ghion Hotels, Yonas would only hope
to see the holiday gone and avoid future
cancellation of booking by high-profile
clients of his.
“Not knowing the fact that Ghion rates have
shot up, we booked our customers based on
the previously known rate,” said Yonas.
"After we discovered that the hotels'
services have increased by 30pc and upon
informing of the readjustment of rate to our
customers, most had to cancel."
Seyoum, however, does not want to buy the
idea of those pessimists who fear the
Millennium hijacked their businesses. He
argued that, let alone a Millennium holiday
of such stature that enjoys wider coverage
in the international media, even when such
conferences like the African Summit that
took place in the past saw a great number of
visitors in the country and hotels such as
Sheraton Addis and Hilton were fully booked
to an extent that even those four-star
hotels were busy up until the visitors left
the country.
For Seyoum, another consideration, that
since the guests are coming with their
family members, the chances of them putting
up in the hotels may not be conducive, as
they would want to stay with their relatives
here in Addis and elsewhere in the country,
may clear up the discrepancy between airline
and hotel bookings.
"Therefore, it is wrong to conclude that the
number of guests expected to arrive in the
country is no longer achievable," Seyoum
asserted.
|
