By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA 

Ethiopia hopes to transform its tourism industry to help bolster the industry's meager performance, an Ethiopian official said Wednesday.

"A national Tourism Transformation Council has been established to boost the sector," Solomon Tadesse, CEO of the Ethiopian Tourism Organization, told Anadolu Agency.

He said the tourism industry currently contributesa mere 4 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

Tadesse cited the lack of well-developed tourism infrastructure as one of the main reasons for the industry's weak performance.

"Ethiopia is a relative latecomer in terms of tourism development," he said on the sidelines of the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF), currently underway in Addis Ababa.

Despite the industry's weak performance, Tadesse said, "Ethiopia ranks 17th in Africa according to the World Tourism Organization in [terms of]the overall performance of the industry."

The plan, he said, was to bring Ethiopia up to fifth placewithin a three-year period.

"We have laid solid foundations for the development of Ethiopia's tourism industry," he said.

"But a lot must be done in terms of expansion of tourist infrastructure across the country and the expansion of quality hotel services," Tadesse added.

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