Integrating mining heritage and mining tourism into the conventional cultural heritage and tourism industry of Ethiopia

Mining fields and their operations should have heritage and tourism significance and should be considered components of Ethiopia’s economic activities. Hence, this study aims to situate mining heritage and mining tourism within the conventional understanding of Ethiopia’s heritage and tourism industry while exploring strategies to transform mining heritage into a tourism economy. To investigate these issues, the study relies on the collection and analysis of relevant data from numerous sources, including proclamations issued on Ethiopia’s heritage protection and conservation, legislation on mining operations, and oral sources. Policy documents related to the country’s tourism industry, as well as documents from the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank, were also collected and analysed. To analyse these data, a qualitative approach to data investigation, i.e., document and empirical analyses, was used. The article’s findings suggest that Ethiopian mining heritage requires recognition, registration, and protection to enhance its significance as a national heritage asset and serve as supplementary authentic sources for the Ethiopian tourism industry in their efforts to appropriately identify and study the cultural and historical values of the mining and tourism industry. Finally, the article concludes that existing proclamations and legislation on heritage protection and conservation, as well as policy documents on Ethiopia’s tourism industry, have focused on conventional cultural and natural heritage and the benefits these heritages bring to the tourism sector. However, there are opportunities to integrate mining heritage into these legal and policy documents and thereby transform mining heritage into new tourism assets by overcoming key challenges.