VISITOR MANAGEMENT AS A TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT; THE CASE OF ENTOTO NATURAL PARK, ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

Visitor management (VM) is a type of managerial techniques and tools used to preserving the natural and cultural tourism assets, retain visitor experiences as well as promoting sustainable tourism. Visitor management tools can also categorized as hard and soft visitor management technique. The aim of this study was to investigate visitor management to enhance sustainable tourism development in Entoto Natural Park, Addis Ababa. The study was used descriptive design in link with mixed research approach. The sampling techniques were include non probability sampling specifically convenience sampling to get representative sample from visitors and purposive sampling to select samples from Entoto Natural Park staffs, Addis Ababa tourism office, Addis Ababa Culture and Tourism Development Bureau, travel agents and private business owners who were located in the park and provide different service for visitors. Questionnaires, interviews and observations were used as a data collection instruments. Hence, 368 domestic visitors were taken for survey questionnaires. The data collect through survey questionnaire was analyzed by using SPSS software version 25and, descriptive statistics specifically percentage and mean was used to analyzed data collected from survey questionnaires moreover, Pearson correlation was also conducted to see the relationship between variables and although content analysis method used to analyze the qualitative data. The findings of this research revealed that the practices of visitor management tools in Entoto Natural Park were poor condition which confirmed the challenges of implementing visitor management including low level of implementation, limited stakeholder participation, limited skilled human power, lack of awareness and lack of responsibility in the park. On the other hand, the Pearson correlation verified that hard visitor management tool has positive & strong relationship with sustainable tourism development and soft visitor management tool has positive and moderate correlation with sustainable tourism development.