Oromia Tourism Commission is a regional tourism organization under the Oromia National Regional State Government. Since its establishment on July 07, 2020, the Commission has undertaken rigorous activities that laid foundation for the region's tourism development. Oromia, Land of Diverse Beauty!

1. Oromia Tourism
Commission
One Year Journey of

2. Why OTC?
• Oromia is the largest of all regions
in Ethiopia in terms of population,
landmass, natural resources, and
GDP contribution. The same thing
applies for tourism.
• Despite the fact that the region
has the most advantages to
benefit from the tourism sector, it
is lagging behind due to several
problems.

3. Why OTC?
• Cognizant of this, the regional government put
greater attention on
• established Oromia Tourism Commission (OTC)
last July 2020 as an independent body
accountable to the President of ONRS.
• The Regulation that established OTC included an
oversight body, a Board, and a governing
superstructure lead by the President of ONRS, the
Oromia Tourism Council, composed of
representatives from the public, private and civil
society organizations including faith based
organizations.
• The Council gives overriding direction, approves
key OTC organizational policies and strategic
plans and any major initiatives.

4. OTC Mission, Vision and Values
OTC envisions Oromia being the
leading centre of excellence in
sustainably managed destinations
having demonstrated lasting positive
impact on the quality of life of local
communities.
Vision

5. OTC Mission, Vision and Values
OTC exists to feature Oromia as top tourist
destination in Ethiopia.
Mission

6. OTC Mission, Vision and Values
• Values
– OTC’s core values are embedded in “APPETITE”
• Accountability
• Partnership
• Pragmatism
• Excellence & Innovation
• Team Work
• Integrity
• Transparency
• Empowerment

7. OTC’s Mandate
– In order to achieve its mission, OTC is
mandated to:
1. Destination Development
– Develop and diversify exiting and new tourism
products to best meet target markets needs and
expectations;
2. Marketing and Promotion:
– Undertake research based and planned and
technology driven marketing and promotion of
Oromia as best tourist destination - each of the
region’s specific area destinations as full of
attractions that offers fulfilling diverse experiences
for every tourist;

8. OTC’s Mandate
3. Research and Analytics:
– Establish and manage digitized tourism data base that supports
informed and evidence based management of the
transformation
– supplies industry actors including interested investors,
cooperatives, small and micro enterprises, as well as
entrepreneurs and start-ups with data necessary for their
responsible and feasible engagement that adds value
4. Partnership and Resource Mobilization:
– Collaborate and coordinate with stakeholders including host
communities to build networks and partnerships with public,
private and civil society organizations for achieving the above
mandates in the most effective and efficient manner
– Mobilizing resources necessary to undertake destinations and
products development, their marketing and promotion as well as
human resource and organizational capability and capacity
building;

9. Organizational Set Up
• Office set up
• Hiring employees
• On boarding the staff
• Conducting scooping
assessment across the routes

10. Destination Development
• A comprehensive destination plan has been
undertaken for Bale;
• Route Signage depicting the unique features of each
route have been erected;
• Product identification assessment was made;
• Pilot projects of youth cooperatives are under
establishment;
• Fundraising proposals for major destinations have
been designed

11. Marketing and Promotion
• Major social media pages such as: Facebook,
Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube with the
name Visit Oromia have been launched;
• Daily posts are made over the established social
media platforms and they have by now engaged over
20 million viewers and reached 35 million + viewers
• In four months time, our facebook page has now
reached 98K followers and 93K likes
• We have made famtrips that introduced some
destinations
• We have made different publications that promote
our attraction sites and destinations;
• We have made about 20 media appearances;
• We hosted different events like great run of Bale;
• We promoted our region’s tourism using mainstream
media platforms on various occasions

12. Research and Analytics
• We are on the final stage of launching the webbapp
• We are working on tourism digitalization and as part of
this, we have commissioned innovative youth who
developed IT solutions that support service provision;
• We have established a data management system and
installed a server with huge storage capacity
• We have conducted baseline surveys to assess the
industry status and predict its growth;
• We have established knowledge management system to
capture new knowledge and update existing ones. To
this end, we have dedicated a tourism incubation centre
by our hero, the late Artist Hachalu Hundessa
• We are working on idea harvesting by engaging different
stakeholder groups

13. Partnership and Resource Mobilization
• Connected with tour and travel agencies in formal
platforms;
• We have established partnership with 9 universities
to collaborate in multidimensional tourism
development initiatives;
• We have partnered with 2 airlines (Ethiopian Airlines
and National Airways;
• We have partnered with local and international NGOs
that share our values.
• Through these partnerships, we have been able to
mobilize funds worth 35 million birr. Among these:
– Our flagship project of the CRV job creation initiative with Bridges Program of MasterCard
Foundation is bringing 17.7 million birr;
– Mettu university is launching a 5 million project to develop a community lodge in the Yayo
Biosphere;
– We have got a 10 million birr worth service offer from Africa 118 inc. to install a
geospatial data across our tourism destinations and attractions;

14. What is Next?
• Engaging in strategic issues with meaningful
participation of stakeholders
• OTC is committed to address sector issues and
work on its mandates:
– Developing Destinations
– Marketing and Promotion
– Research
– Partnership
– Resource Mobilization
• Stakeholders?

16. Galatoomaa!
እመሰገናለሁ!
Thank You!
Visit Oromia

17. Galatoomaa!
እመሰገናለሁ!
Thank You!
Visit Oromia