City Administration seeks funding for Entoto Tourist Destination Development Project

The Addis Ababa City Administration will be looking for loans from international financial institutions for the development of a mega tourist destination at Mount Entoto in the northern part of the city at a cost of 4.8 billion birr.

The city administration is planning to build a vast tourist recreation center on 4,200 hectares plot in the Entoto forest. At the third general assembly of the Addis Ababa City Tourism Transformation Council held on Tuesday at Getfam Hotel Heyab Gebretsadik (PhD), director of the Entoto Tourist Destination Development Project, said that the huge project has four major packages – recreation center, artifact manufacturing, display and training center, nationalities cultural center and international athletics village. Heyab said that 60 percent of the 4,200 hectares has been degraded adding that a vast afforestation work would be undertaken by planting two million trees.

The Entoto Tourist Destination Development Project incorporates recreation centers, a vast park, zoo, lodges, restaurants, children’s play grounds, artificial ponds, swimming pools, tennis courts, a golf course, horseback riding and camel caravan yards, museums and cultural center that depicts Ethiopian nationalities houses culture and traditions. A 500 meter building tower that would be a land mark of Addis Ababa will be erected. The tower would have restaurants, observation rooms, coffee and athletics museums. The architecture of the tower reflects the designs of Lalibela, Axum, Fasilides Castle and Harar Jegol wall. An international athletics village is also part of the vast tourist destination development project. According to Heyab, the project would create 14,000 jobs. The total cost of the project is estimated at 4.8 billion birr.

Read more at: The Reporter