Water Front Tourism Development in Ethiopia: A GIS Approach. The Case of Gorgora Town, North Gondar, Ethiopia

Abstract

Water front tourism is one of the recent trends in tourism development as a result of advancement of technology in relevance to leisure equipment, environmental and personal safety concern. The major problem identified in the study area was the accommodation, to solve the problem with eco-sense the buffering technique in GIS is used to identify the lodges which would serve better way in accessibility, personal safety and eco-friendly. The descriptive qualitative survey research approach was used with data collection tools such as literature review, focus group discussion (FGD), structured interviews with local community and other stakeholders to understand the local pulse about the issue. Tourism industry in Ethiopia in general and Gogora in particular is growing; however accommodation problem in Gorgora remained a serious concern to the tourist industry.