Djibouti Tour Operators

Djibouti Tour Operators

Tourism is a serious industry! Anyone in the value chain should be aware of that by now. There is more to tourism than just entertainment and events, although those are essential components. However, the most important factor to make these events or entertainment relevant to tourism is the income they generate.

It is unfortunate that tourism has not been explored and emphasized enough in Djibouti as a business. In terms of tourism, the government is not pushing the agenda. Tourism has not developed a strong culture among citizens, so they do not understand its importance.

In the private sector, the focus is not necessarily on selling the country or its attractions. Most tour operators were primarily concerned with outbound tours to Dubai, Kenya, Turkey, South Africa, Ethiopia and other countries before COVID-19 hit.

It’s understandable that tour operators are not so enthusiastic about domestic tourism except for Vist Horn Africa tour operator, which promotes Djibouti tourism as well as other Horn of Africa countries, since the Djiboutian tourism ecosystem does not guarantee them a return on investment. Tourism is not heavily invested in the country. We have not fully exploited the potential of this sector.

It seems that the government is not committed to seeing tourism as a strategic and necessary economic sector. Each year, the government allocates a beggarly budget to the tourism sector, demonstrating its disinterest.

Over the years, there has not been a clear government policy that promotes or boosts tourism. All that has been done so far seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to an issue that requires constant and deliberate attention.

It is always difficult to track whether specific tourism programmes, such as training, product development, marketing, have been carried out even when the country receives funding from organizations like the World Bank. They might be done, but industry players don’t hear about it, the media doesn’t report it, and the realities on the ground don’t reflect it.

Many tourist attractions remain poorly managed, with guides who are ignorant of the history and information about the sites. Different guides tell different stories about different attractions, reflecting a lack of standardization of information. All these defects would be corrected through training and investment if the government considered tourism as a business and as good a cash cow as agriculture.

Perhaps Djibouti has too many economic indicators, causing tourism not to rank high on the government’s agenda given the multiplicity of indicators. As a result of growing concerns over the degradation of forest lands, pollution of water caused by mining, and the need to promote environmental sustainability through reducing industrial emissions, tourism remains one sector the government can still rely on to maintain economic growth.

Across Africa, countries such as Seychelles, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Ethiopia and a host of others continue to transform their economies through tourism. This is a group of countries that understand the importance of the industry for wealth creation, reducing unemployment, and diversifying their economies.

It is our belief that Djibouti has the potential to perform even better than these countries in terms of the types of attractions that we currently have and the number of attractions that can be added to Djibouti in the future, including Lake Assal, Lake Abbe and Mocha Island. In spite of the fact that roads leading to major tourist destinations all over the country have been in a state of disrepair for a long time, it is difficult to tell whether the government is serious when it is constantly putting out ambitious tourism numbers.