Heritage resources as a driver of cultural tourism development in Ethiopia: A review

Ethiopia is a lucky and nature-gifted country that is endowed with an outstanding, diverse, and the product of different ethnic group assets of heritages. These heritages are the manifestation of those societies’ cultural identity and national pride. Both tangible and intangible heritages are the main assets to drive visitors to those destinations and attractions. Based on tourism, the country can achieve sustainable cultural tourism with sustainable socio-economic development. Therefore, heritage resources are the key to achieving sustainable cultural tourism where this paper tried to assess Ethiopian Cultural heritage resources as a driver of Cultural tourism development by stating their qualities. To attain the set goal, the study implements a qualitative research approach and uses content analyses to analyze literature from journals, thesis, and books on heritage studies that are taken from Academia, Google Scholar, Science direct, and Research gate. The scope of the study revolved around only eight tangible cultural heritages of the country which are enlisted in UNESCO as a world heritage sites. The reviewed literature revealed that the cultural heritages of Ethiopia contributed to the development of sustainable cultural tourism but it did not achieve the expected result because of different factors. The author recommended that the stakeholders must create a sustainable tourism policy to achieve sustainable cultural tourism in the country.