Analysis of Smokeless Industry on Poverty and improving Community Participation: Evidences from three clusters of Tigrai, Ethiopia

Nowadays, countries have been exercising and allocating huge budgets to expand and utilize more from the smokeless industry. This article presents the impact of smokeless industry on poverty and improving local community‘s participation evidenced from Aksum, Wukro and Mekelle clusters of Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia. Simple random sampling, purposive and convenient sampling technique were used to collected data from 460 respondents; and poverty measure of FGT and income distribution tool of Gini index and growth rate measures were employed in the analysis. 15.6% of the households were living below the poverty line with income shortfall of 3% and poverty severity index of 1 % which varies across the community members’ sector involvement, gender and education level. Number of visitors (both domestic and international) has increased through time and 29566 tourists were visiting the tourist endowments in Tigrai in 2005. At an average growth rate of 12.67% per annum, number of visitors has grown and reached 70427 in 2013 yet the average days of stay of 1.65 was very low. Moreover, on average, about 51535 tourists were visiting Tigrai for the last nine years. The income from the smokeless industry was so low but improvements were observed since 2008 onwards. Having average income growth rate of 27.77% from the sector, in 2012/ 2013 more than 94.7 million birr was collected in which 34.9 and 55.3 million Birr were obtained from local and international tourists, respectively. Different sectors of the economy has enjoyed the revenue from the sectors and 60.14% was collected by the hotel sector, followed by tour operators and transporters (15.84%). 13.26% is shared among the handcrafts, arts shops and related owners, and churches (the St. marry church, Abreha we Atsbeha, AbuneAregawi and AbuneYemataa) has collected 4.62% of the total income. In addition, tour guides and Culture and Tourism Agency of Aksum, Wukro and Meklelle cluster got revenue share of 4.4% and 1.74%, respectively. Limited community involvement and awareness, professionalism and promotion problems, shortage of tourism related investment, poor infrastructure and utilities and poor access for training and capacity building were affecting the performance of the industry in Tigrai. Standardization and grading of hotels, capacity building on service delivery, food preparation and language, women empowerment and awareness creation and discussions with communities are expected to be handled to increase the flow of tourists and income from the sector.