ET Holiday: a sore issue with tour operators

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Ethiopian Airlines (ET), Ethiopian Tour Operators’ Association (ETOA) and private tour operators have gotten into a dispute following the Air Transport giant’s entry into the local tour operations market through its newly-formed ET Holiday Division.

Recently, ET and the association discussed issues concerning how to handle tour operations together, but ET unilaterally went ahead and floated a bid for a joint venture (JV) and has already selected a tour operating company to work with, claim tour operators.  Their complaints centre around the fact that joint discussions and negotiations between the two groups were about working together for the growth of the sector, but Ethiopian’s actions in floating the bid and selecting a specific company to work with, defeats the whole purpose of the negotiations and hence is improper.
The consultative forum organized by Ministry of  Culture and Tourism  was held on April 8, at the Sheraton Addis aims to boost the tourism sector in partnership with the private sector.

According to the tour operators, besides the fact stated above, the state monopoly’s new plan will force them out of the sector. Meanwhile, ET stated that its plan was to work together with established companies for mutual benefit. “The bid is illegal,” the tour operators claim. This is because only one company (Boston Day Spa) participated and won the bid,” they argued. At the event held on Monday, April 8, to address the problems facing the tourism sector, this issue of ET Holiday was raised. Read more