Eritrea says Ethiopia border stalemate hits tourism
17 August 2005, ASMARA, ERITREA (Reuters via AOLnews) - Eritrea said on Wednesday its border stalemate with Ethiopia was hindering a drive to develop tourism and bring in precious hard currency for one of the world's poorest countries.
"Maybe some misinformed people consider this to be a conflict region, but that is not so," Eritrean Tourism Minister Amina Nurhussien told Reuters.
The two Horn of Africa neighbours, who lost 70,000 people in a 1998-2000 border war, have been in political deadlock since 2002 when Ethiopia refused to accept a demarcation decision by an independent boundary commission.
Some 165,000 visitors a year were coming to the Red Sea state before the war, but that had now dropped to between 100,000 and 150,000 even though fighting was over.
"The number of visitors will be higher if this border conflict is settled, of course," said Nurhussien, whose ministry is in charge of a 20-year tourism development plan.
Eritrea has set itself a target of attracting between 600,000 and 1 million tourists by 2020.
"(Eritrea) is politically stable, peaceful, so it is easy for people to move around," she said, adding that Eritrea's main markets for tourism were Europe, America, and the Middle East.
Eritrea's 20-year tourism strategy, backed by the U.N.'s World Tourism Organisation and the U.N.'s Development Programme, aims to promote attractions such as beaches, coral reefs, archaeological sites and a diverse cultural heritage.
Eritrea is one of the most needy countries in the world with two thirds of its 3.6 million people requiring food aid this year.
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