Promises and Challenges of Kaffa as Tourist Destination: SWOT Analysis

The roles of tourism in multidimensional development of global societies are undeniable. Ethiopia as cradle of humankind, the birth place of coffee, the only uncolonized African country and the founding member of UN is endowed with many amazing tourism resources. Though Kaffa is bestowed with amazing natural, historical, cultural, archaeological and coffee tourism resources, this destination is not under the category of well-known tour and travel packages of Ethiopia and receiving a smaller number of visitors compared to the destinations with low tourism resources. Accordingly, the objective of this study is to conduct SWOT analysis of Kaffa so as to identify the promises and challenges of Kaffa as tourist destination. In order to identify and describe the promises and challenges of Kaffa as tourist destination through SWOT analysis, descriptive research design was applied. 406 sample respindents were selected from local and international tourists, travel agencies, tourism and culture officials, tour operators, tour guides, NGO, tourism professionals and business practitioners in Kaffa through convenient and purposive sampling techniques. The data were collected through questionnaires, focus group discussions, key informant interview and secondary data sources and analyzed quatitatively as well as qualitatively. Therefore, the findings of this study depicted that there are different promises and challenges of Kaffa as tourist destination. The safety and security of Kaffa to travel,value for money in destination experience and accommodation,traditional & modern food service, financial institutions, postal service and telecommunication access,hospitability of residents towards tourists, conducive investment environment as strength as well as pleasing weather condition of Kaffa for tourism, water tourism resources, unique flora and fauna, unique coffee resources, rich cultural heritages, unspoiled natural scenic beauty, an astonishing history, promising policy and strategies at national level for tourism sector as opportunity are identified as promises for Kaffa as tourist destination. Conversely, lacks of enough quality roads, highways, transport facilities, lacks of quality hotels and other accommodation establishments, limited resource and budget for tourism, problem of promotion and marketing, poor collaboration between government and stakeholders and lack of educated manpower in tourism sector as weakness as well as seasonality nature of tourism industry, limited awareness of the destination at national and international level, deforestation of dense forests and eyecatching huge trees for investment, culture of hunting endemic wild animals and acculturation and loss of some unique cultures as threats are identified as challenges of