Concept for Ecotourism Industry: Over View from out to in (Ethiopia). A Review Articles

Ecotourism is an important and rapidly growing “niche market” within the global tourism industry, which can contribute to environmental conservation, socio-economic and gives value to the maintenance of local traditions and culture. The evolution of the concept of ecotourism could be traced from the 1980s, which coincides with the grounding of the concept of sustainable development. Although it has been difficult to calculate the size and growth rate of ecotourism, a range of estimates indicate that it has become the fastest growing sub-sector of the tourism industry. The contribution of ecotourism to rural livelihoods and livelihood diversification has received significant research attention and taken as determinants of livelihood outcomes. Ethiopia is a country of land of multiple tourist attractions and a visitor friendly people who are conscious of its historical, cultural and natural heritages in its regions. Even though it possesses a plethora of tourist attractions, yet tourism infrastructure, tourist products and marketing are at its infancy. The sector has direct, indirect and induced impact on the country’s economy, environment and cultural resources. To sustain sustainable development for the long run from the sector, balancing those impacts and giving attention towards peace and security as well as infrastructure development is crucial as the ecotourism industry mainly depend on them.


Introduction 1.Over view of Ecotourism Industry (from out to Ethiopia)
Ecotourism, which is a unique subset of the tourism industry, focuses on the maintenance of natural systems through tourism activities and initially used to describe nature based travel to relatively undisturbed areas with an emphasis on education, conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people (Fasika, 2017). It is "environmentally responsible travel and visitation to relatively undisturbed natural areas to enjoy and appreciate nature (including any accompanying cultural features both past and present), that promotes conservation, has low visitor impact and provides for beneficially active socioeconomic involvement of local populations" (IUCN, 1996). Eco tourists are particularly interested in visiting relatively untouched and pristine areas (Buckley, 2009;Kimengsi, 2014) with the goal to view, admire, enjoy, learn, and leave limited impact, while serving as a livelihood support or diversification strategy. Nonetheless, the meaning of ecotourism may mean different things to different people (Kipper, 2013).
The evolution of the concept of ecotourism could be traced from the 1980s, which coincides with the grounding of the concept of sustainable development (Mowforth, 2003;Fennell, 2008). It evolved from growing concerns about the negative environmental and socioeconomic effects of mass tourism development (EGA, 2008). It has become everything that mass market tourism is not. Rather than isolating tourists from local communities in all-inclusive resorts, it features engagement with local culture, nature, and communities. Rather than despoiling the environment, it seeks to protect and enhance it (Langoya and Long, 2016). See fig.1.   Figure 1: Conceptual model of tourism and ecotourism (Eriksson, 2003) Ecotourism is an important and rapidly growing "niche market" within the global tourism industry, which offers an opportunity to develop products that can contribute to environmental conservation, socio-economic and cultural objectives by providing livelihoods for local communities and giving value to the maintenance of local traditions and culture (UNECA, 2011). The sector is increasingly accepted as a suitable alternative for sustaining rural livelihoods and its choice defined as including arts and crafts sales/cultural heritage promotion, wilderness/museum visits, cultural festivals, and conservation education (Jude et al, 2019).
Ecotourism could be as a good example of alternative income generation and off-farm activities which benefit local communities while achieve the conservation goals of natural resources (EFCOT, 2003;Turpie at al., 2006;Mitchell, 2012). Furthermore, assessment of ecotourism or simple nature tourism does not need more facilities and it depends on locally obtained facilities or natural capital of the poor that can be managed locally (Scwenk, 2002). Ecotourism could be a link between protected areas and local communities by generating income for local communities while conservation goals of protected areas achieved. It is very important where the ecosystem is fragile and other forms of natural resource management might be impossible (Brodnig, 2006).
Ethiopia is a country which is endowed with the vast array of ecotourism resources including cultural, historical, and archaeological and natural resources which are ideal for the development of sustainable ecotourism ventures (Sewnet, 2017). The county is land of multiple tourist attractions and a visitor friendly people who are conscious of its historical, cultural and natural heritages (Ayalew, 2009). It possesses a plethora of tourist attractions, yet tourism infrastructure is at its infancy; tourist products are poorly maintained; access to tourist products are difficult and can be inappropriately expensive; and there is a lack of marketing to attract tourists to the country, and a lack of marketing of tourist attractions once tourists are in the country (Robinson et al., 2016). By considering the above reality, the aims of this review paper are:  To understand the contemporary knowledge regarding ecotourism industry in general,  To clearly identify the role and status of ecotourism industry particularly in Ethiopia  To identify the impacts of ecotourism industry especially towards local community  To suggest future scenario for ecotourism industry based on different literatures.

Linkage of Ecotourism and Protected Areas (from out to Ethiopia)
Ecotourism and protected areas in various forms are two concepts that relate to each other (Aramde et. al., 2012;Lambi et al., 2012). Today protected areas are aimed at conserving biodiversity and large scale of natural ecosystems even though increasingly facing a number of challenges (Wearing and Neil, 1999). Protected areas are important destinations for a growing tourism sector like ecotourism given that it uses diverse nature, landscapes and biodiversity as major attractions (Kimengsi, 2014;Eshun et al., 2016). To ensure that ecotourism can occur, the areas concerned must be preserved and the natural resource base including its flora and fauna must be conserved under the role of protected areas (Kimengsi, 2014;Eshun et al., 2016). Often the location of protected areas is also the location of the homes of entire communities where communities source various resources to sustain themselves, their families and their livelihood (Lambi et al., 2012). If properly planned and managed ecotourism may minimize the environmental impacts while significantly contributes to the protected areas (Strasdas, 2002). Protected areas are biodiversity conservation centers and major tourism assets for a nation, particularly for developing countries like Ethiopia through providing sustainable benefit to the local community while supporting for the maintenance and rehabilitation of the protected areas themselves (Aramde F. et. al., 2012;Du et al., 2015). Protected areas are essential for biodiversity conservation and they are the cornerstones of virtually all national and international conservation strategies, set aside to maintain functioning natural ecosystems, to act as refuges for species and to maintain ecological processes that cannot survive in most intensely managed landscapes (Dudley, 2008).
Protected areas act as benchmarks against which we understand human interactions with the natural world (Aramde et. al., 2012). Today they are often the only hope we have of stopping many threatened or endemic species from becoming extinct (Dudley, 2008). Protected areas are policy instruments for preservation and sustainable use of natural resources vital tool to achieve conservation and sustainable development with a growing acknowledgement of diversified expectation for protected areas (Du et al., 2015). The need for protected areas to optimize revenue and other finance streams in order to supplement government grant funding is widely recognized from time to time (Kelboro and Stellmacher, 2012).
Ethiopia has variety of protected areas with in different places in the regions that can be managed either government or community based sectors (EWCA, 2013). These are: 22 National parks (NP), 2 Wildlife sanctuaries (WS), 5 Wildlife Reserves (WR), 10 Community Conservation Areas (CCA), 21 Controlled Hunting areas (CHA) and 4 Biosphere Reserves (BR). Being known by its oldest record of formalized conservation effort in Africa, protected area management, development and utilization policy in Ethiopia has been subject to a series of paradigm changes since the establishment of Ethiopian Wild Life Organization in 1965 (Derera, 2017).
The country's geology, archeological sites and landscape as well as cultural diversity have been contributed for tourism development and promotion (Robinson et al., 2016). However, the wildlife tourism solely dependent on protected areas, primarily national parks and sanctuaries of the country. Ethiopia's wildlife is one of the richest and most diversified in Africa with several of its protected areas and wetlands (Amare, 2015b). Those are icons for ecotourism sector development. Out of the total wildlife resources, more than 320 mammals (39 endemic), 918 birds (19 endemic), 240 reptiles (16 endemic), 71 amphibians (30 endemic) and 172 fishes (38 endemic) species are recorded in Ethiopia and about 7000 species of plants (12-15% are endemic (Vreugdenhil et al., 2012;Amare, 2015b). The country also has a wide variety of wildlife habitats ranging from alpine moor lands, to lowland savannahs with extensive wetlands. Having evolved in relative ecological isolation from the rest of the African mainland, Ethiopia contains approximately 40% of all land above 2,500m in altitude (EWCA, 2013).

Concept of Eco Lodges and Community Based Ecotourism (from out to Ethiopia)
The International Ecotourism Society (TIES, 1990) defines eco-lodges as including three main components: conservation of neighboring lands, benefits to local communities and interpretation to both local populations and guests. Eco lodges are an exciting and potentially extremely viable strategy for achieving all the tenants of ecotourism and more specifically community based eco-tourism (Zerubabel and Tsion, 2019). Ecotourism has the greatest pro-poor impact on rural communities because the customer comes to the facility/product creating room for direct sell thus fostering the creation of the economic multiplier effect (Manu et al., 2012).
Community-based ecotourism helps improve standard of living for example through increased disposable income of individuals (Manu et al., 2012). Besides these, there is an underlying concept of development of community-based ecotourism which is empowerment of local people (Ashley, 2001). In particular, the concept of empowerment of host communities can be divided into four different categories: Economic, psychological, social and political (Manu et al., 2012;Ashley, 2001). In economic terms, ecotourism generates long-term benefits that are distributed equitably within the host communities and can be used for the constant improvement of the community's infrastructure.
Moreover, ecotourism can contribute to the psychological empowerment of the local people by enhancing their sense of self-esteem and by cultivating pride for their cultural and natural heritage (Ashley, 2001;Manu et al., 2012). This happens because ecotourism reveals to the public the value of host community in terms of natural beauty or cultural uniqueness. In addition, ecotourism may strengthen social bonds within the community by promoting cooperation among its members. Finally, ecotourism brings about political empowerment, since it creates a forum for the expression of peoples' voices concerning issues of local development (Scheyvens, 1999;Ashley, 2001;Manu et al., 2012).
Another important benefit of community participation in ecotourism which is somewhat related to the economic benefits is conservation (Dixey, 2005;Li, 2006;West et al, 2006;Epler Wood & Jones, 2008;Byrd et al., 2009;Sewnet, 2017). Community-based ecotourism (CBE) is seen as a viable model for achieving conservation and improved livelihoods for park-fringe communities (Ishmael, 2017). CBE by its nature ensures the sustainable use of biodiversity and this offers the opportunity for host communities to derive revenue and employment (Mowforth andMunt, 2009). Bhanoo (2015) has also argued that CBE leads to conservation through rural development because villagers and local people are more inclined to support biodiversity conservation and follow park rules if they were involved in it.
It has been further argued that community participation helps to reduce conflicts and misunderstandings among host communities, park authorities and tourists (Ishmael, 2017). Hardy, Beeton, and Pearson (2002) indicated that community participation is believed to reduce opposition to tourism development, minimize negative impacts and revitalize the economies of host communities. Another way by which it helps to reduce conflicts is through improvement in people-park collaborations which contributes to the understanding of local issues and promotes knowledge sharing (West et al, 2006). See fig.2.  Figure 2: The tourism industry and Eco lodges (Zerubabel and Tsion, 2019) Numerous community-based ecotourism initiatives and associations have been developed across Ethiopia in the last decade (Sisay, 2004;Carmen, 2017). Regions like Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, and SNNPR are actively promoting these alternative development models and some locations of active community-based ecotourism include the Simien and Bale Mountains national parks, Menze Guassa, Lake Tana, Lalibela Meket, Lake Ziway, Wenchi Crater, Lake Langano, Lake Hawassa, Lake Abaya and Chamo, Abune Yossef, Mekedella, Adawa and Yirgalem also specifically good destination (Carmen, 2017). According to the author in Ethiopia, as in many other destinations worldwide, these projects are seldom based on realistic assessments of the market potential, lack good feasibility studies and links with the commercial channels are not well established from the outset. Additionally, Adaba-Dodola, which is financially and technically supported by the German Agency of Technical Cooperation or GTZ (now GIZ) on the northern slopes of the Bale Mountains in Oromia National Regional State and a pilot ecotourism project on Semen Mountains National Park (Sisay, 2004).

Impacts of Ecotourism industry (from out to Ethiopia)
Ecotourism first and foremost, has been associated with positive impacts on the destination economies, with the sector being noted as the fastest growing within the tourism industry (Eshun et al., 2016;Hugo and Nyaupane, 2016;Irizarry, 2017). Positive economic impacts are generally linked to the creation of jobs (Andereck et al., 2005;Tyrrell et al., 2013;Venkatesh and Gouda, 2016) which can have knock-on positive social impacts in terms of the employment of those from the destination areas thereby improving the local quality of life. However, the possibility that positive impacts are not the only outcome must also be considered (Wishitemi et al., 2015). Socially, communities and locals from the destination areas can suffer the negative consequences of ecotourism through being denied access to the protected areas that are reserved for ecotourism (Das and Chatterjee, 2015) thus leading to an inability to access their source of livelihoods.
From an environmental perspective, drawing on the aforementioned definition of ecotourism such tourism could positively impact on environmental conservation and preservation efforts thereby contributing to the sustainable use of natural resources (Lu et al., 2016;Boley and Green, 2016;Irizarry, 2017). However, the above too might be linked to the possible negative social impacts, compromising the livelihoods of the locals and the communities that rely on the natural resource base for sustenance (Stronza and Gordillo, 2008;Poudel et al., 2016). Furthermore, community participation, or lack thereof in the conservation efforts stemming from ecotourism can shape the positive or negative attitudes of individuals or groups (Wishitemi et al., 2015).
The Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF) is an approach that provides an understanding of the livelihoods of the poor (Allison & Ellis, 2001;Agarwala et al., 2014). The Department of International Development included the sustainable livelihood approach as an integral aspect of their pro-poor strategies and policies (Solesbury, 2003;Agarwala et al., 2014). As Chambers and Conway (1992) note "a livelihood in its simplest sense is a means of gaining a living. The SLF includes five assets, namely the natural, physical, human, financial and social capital assets. The access to and the interaction with such assets determines the livelihood of those involved (Allison & Ellis, 2001). Although the ecotourism activities present an opportunity in which the locals can engage, it is necessary to secure alternate forms of generating income due to the seasonality and resultant instability of the industry (Vyasha and Tembi, 2018) some times. See fig.3  Figure 3: The notion of sustainability under the three pillars (source: Zerubabel and Tsion, 2019) Although it has been difficult to calculate the size and growth rate of ecotourism, a range of estimates indicate that it has become the fastest growing sub-sector of the tourism industry (Du et al., 2015). During the 1990s, the annual growth in demand for ecotourism was said to range from 10 to 34%, while in 2004, the UNWTO estimated that ecotourism and nature tourism were growing three times faster than conventional tourism industry as a whole. In 2005, the International Tourism Network also rated ecotourism as one of the fastest growing sub-sectors in the tourism industry with an annual growth rate of 5% worldwide representing 6% of the world Gross Domestic Product and 11.4% of all consumers spending (Honey, 2008). Ecotourism activities have been expanding rapidly over the past decades worldwide and further growth is expected in the future (UNWTO, 2002).
Ethiopia is an Eastern African country with the home of 14 natural, cultural and mixed property heritages registered on UNESCO which spreads all over the whole country and has great potential to develop itself as a tourist destination (MOCT, 2016). Tourism and Travel sector has direct, indirect and induced impact on the Ethiopian economy. In 2014, the direct contribution from tourism and travel to Ethiopian GDP was US$ 2,057.8 million (4.1% of total GDP), and this contribution is forecasted to rise by 1.  Based on the information of international tourist arrivals, even though there was an incremental pattern of tourist arrivals in the late 2017 to early 2019 (reached more than 900,000 arrivals), the arrivals became declined then due to novel coronavirus (COVID-19) happened globally (Mahder et al., 2020).
Latest report of World Travel and Tourism Council's (WTTC, 2019) on Ethiopia's Travel and Tourism with reference to financial gain revenue tourists seventy seven were came from international travelers and twenty third from domestic travelers primarily for leisure activities that accounts seventy nine and therefore the remaining twenty first travelers were came for the business activities as a result of this the economy driven from this sector were grew by 48.6% in 2018 and makes the largest of any country around the globe which creates a revenue of $7.4 billion as we compares from 2017 and it shows an increment of $2.2 billion. Owing to this tourism and travel contributes 9.4% of country economy and it creates 2.2 million jobs, or 8.3% total employment of the country (Mahder et al., 2020). As of UNWTO (2020) report, the tourist arrivals in African country are making variation from Nov.2018-Jan.2019 in some selected countries. In the specified year, there is incremental pattern for Ethiopia as shown in fig.5. The hotel Industry plays a major role in the development of Ethiopian economy, besides from its contribution to GDP; it creates jobs opportunity extends from unskilled persons such as, cooker, receptionists, cleaners, security guards to skilled higher management staffs. Furthermore, now this industry plays a crucial source of employment which accounts 3.8% of total employment in 2013 representing 985,500 jobs directly and this is forecast to grow by 0.1% in 2014 to 986,000 (3.6% of total employment) In the country (Sustainable Tourism master plan of Ethiopia, 2015 -2025). Table 1: Incoming operators in Ethiopia offering community experiences, Rate from 'least important' (1) to 'most important' (5) (Source: CBI Market Scan, 2017, cited in, Carmen, 2017.

No. Assessment of destination Ethiopia (1-5) 1
Visiting local communities 4 2 Walking or cycling through communities 4 3 Lunch break in community 4 4 Home-stays or community lodges 3 5 Bed and breakfast accommodation 3 6 Cooking courses in local home 3 7 Participation in daily (farm) life activities 3 8 Handicraft demonstration 2 9 Other: hair-style/hair pleating 2 10 Other: making local brewery 1 11 Other: village tours including weaving 1 In general, Tourism is a back bone in Ethiopia significantly it generates foreign currency and it ensure high involvement in creating country GDP. Besides to this it supports 2.2 million jobs of the country (Mahder et al., 2020).

Ecotourism SWOT analysis in Ethiopia
By definition, ecotourism prefers small number of tourists but in many cases, control and monitoring of the carrying capacities of target areas is often difficult. The impact of tourism on the environment includes depletion of natural resources, pollution, soil erosion, natural habitat loss, increased pressure on endangered species and heightened vulnerability to forest fires (Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, 2011). Negative impacts from tourism occur when the level of visitor use is greater than the environment's ability to cope with this use within the acceptable limits of change (Kuuder et al., 2013;Wishitemi et al., 2015). There are arguments about the influx of tourists, economic benefits from tourism and infrastructure development which suggest that if these are not managed properly, they may turn ecotourism into mainstream mass tourism (Kuuder et al., 2013).
The tourism sector is a major contributor to socio-economic development and can be used as a tool to reduce poverty at the national, regional and rural areas (Manu et al., 2012;Ishmael, 2017). Ecotourism generally poses both positive and negative effects to participating communities (Kuuder et al., 2013;Wishitemi et al., 2015).
The ecotourism potentials of Ethiopia has been facing a number of threats due to increasing human population and livestock pressures like heavy grazing of under story; the cutting of trees for construction, farm tools and fuel; expansion of cultivated area (Belachew, 2016). Even though natural resources in Ethiopia have great contribution for the development of tourism in general and ecotourism in particular, most of natural resources are highly exposed to degradation which directly affect ecotourism sector (Belachew, 2016). Deforestation is one of the major factors contributing to land degradation by exposing the soil to various agents of erosion which in turn greatly affects agricultural productivity.

Global Competitiveness of Ecotourism in Ethiopia
Although Ethiopia is well known for its historical tourism attractions and resources and has been visited by millions of foreigners, the industry of the country is still not at the level where it deserves to be (Feseha, 2011). The World Bank (2008) reported that Ethiopia's competitiveness in terms of tourism resources especially cultural tourism is better when compared to our neighbors'. But when the comparison is made in terms of tourism product development (accessibility), the World Economic Forum (2015) report suggested that the country needs to improve a lot. The World Economic Forum (2017) ranked Ethiopia 116 th (out of 136 countries) in its Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI). This rank follows the gradual improvement achieved in the last years but Ethiopia still lags behind other African countries, well established tourism destinations such as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda (EU Market Scan. CBI, 2017). Ethiopia's relative lack of competitiveness is echoed in a number of studies.