1. Tour Operation Management and Support

Tour operators are critical actors in the tourism sector. Whenever a tourist/group of tourists decides to visit Ethiopia, their first contact is usually identifying a good tour operator company. Then, they will contact the tour operator company via email and book everything needed from a tour package, flight, accommodation, etc. through several email exchanges with the tourist. Today’s millennial generation and the tourists don’t want to go through more than a dozen email exchanges to create a travel itinerary to visit a destination. Rather, they would like to explore online destinations they would like to visit, select, book, pay and create a full itinerary online through a few clicks only.

The main service provider companies involved in a one-holiday itinerary include; flight ticket sellers, accommodation providers, car hire services, and tour guides. All these services are facilitated and booked through the tour operator. We seek to develop an innovative solution that supports the entire tour-related operations, management, and support in Ethiopia.

2. Exploring Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is considered the capital city of Africa and Ethiopian Airlines a hub airline in the Eastern Africa region. Using Ethiopian Airlines, several thousand passengers’ transits through Addis Ababa with 8 – 24hrs transit times in Addis Ababa.

There are also business travelers who are staying in Addis with limited time to spend in Addis before and after their business travel. Both types of travelers have the opportunity/need to explore Addis Ababa and usually ask the Hotel front desk to facilitate activities in Addis or stay at the airport or stay in their hotels. These kinds of travelers don’t have a way to explore Addis Ababa, know where tourist attractions cities are in Addis, how to book them, how to get there, and how to pay. That also ensures their safety. We seek to develop products that facilitate the exploring of Addis Ababa with convenience and fun for tourists.

3. Tourism Marketplace

Just like any other country, Ethiopia has various cultural clothing, arts, crafts, literature, etc that are unique to Ethiopia only. Most of these products are sold on street corners everywhere in Ethiopia. Tourists love and buy these products at higher prices. The community that produces these unique products doesn’t have the opportunity, exposure, or promotion needed to actually benefit from the sale of these goods and promote Ethiopia’s culture as well.

To date, there are no adequate digital solutions that can introduce these cultural products that can also be used as an online selling platform that can benefit the community that produces them and benefits small and medium-size enterprises and women-owned businesses in this area. We seek to develop products that can highlight, market, and sell Ethiopian cultural products online.