Domestic Tourism as a Vehicle for Tolerance and Peace Building: Lessons from World Heritage Sites in the Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia

The major purpose of this study was to examine whether and under what conditions that domestic tourism can help for tolerance and peace building in the Amhara world heritage Sites, Ethiopia. To achieve this objective, quantitative and qualitative case study method, and purposive and stratified sampling techniques were employed for questionnaire, focus group discussion and interview data gathering instruments. Quantitative data was hand-coded into SPSS (version 19) and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Therefore, tourism experts and domestic tourists were participated and the collected data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one way ANOVA and post hoc. The quality of quantitative data from questionnaire survey was checked by using reliability (Cronbachs alpha) and validity (factor analysis) test. The qualitative data was collected from experts and domestic tourists and analyzed through interpretative and descriptive account of the data. To assure the reliability of qualitative data all interviews and group discussions were recorded and registered word for word throughout the courses of interviews and focus group discussions. The interpretation of qualitative data was a thematic descriptive approach that utilizes a theme summary data and unattributed quotes to illustrate dominant issues in respondents own words. The major findings of the study indicate that an increment of academic qualification and experience of travelling to different parts of the country can help to understand the role of domestic tourism for tolerance and peace building. However, the Amhara regional state government should not viewed domestic tourism as some form of vector of economic domination, but is very much seen to be an instrument of tolerance and peace building, a sustainable economic, environmental and social tool for development were some of the recommendations given.