Urban Tourism Stakeholders’ Role and Practice: A Case Study of Hawassa City, Ethiopia

Urban Tourism Stakeholders’ Role and Practice: A Case Study of Hawassa City, Ethiopia

Though the concept of urban tourism is new and hasn’t yet got attention of researcher, there have been tourism activities in major cities of Ethiopia. The author analyzed data gathered from different stakeholders in order to examine urban tourism stakeholders’ role and practice in Hawassa city, Ethiopia. Finding shows that public sectors were involved in urban tourism development in managing private stakeholders, developing policies and plan, recording tourists who visit Hawassa and in promoting the city as urban tourism destinations. Private sectors on the other hand were involved in providing services such as guiding and interpretations, hospitality services, transport service and tour operation and car rental services. Tourists’ perception and satisfaction level to the above services provided by private sector suggest that there is a need to improve quality and quantity of services. This implies that in order to have well developed sustainable urban tourism development in Hawassa improving performances in certain areas is necessary.