Impediments of Traditional Painting Souvenir Development in and around the Historic of Gondar, Ethiopia

Impediments of Traditional Painting Souvenir Development in and around the Historic of Gondar, Ethiopia By Leul Yohannes (MA, Tourism and Heritage Management) Department of Tourism Management College of Business and Economics University of Gondar, Ethiopia Other than its huge socio-economic benefits, a well-developed handicraft industry usually helps a destination to draw the attention of visitors easily. However, the development of souvenir handcrafts is being challenged by various contextual factors derived from socio-economic situations of each tourist destinations. So, this research examined impediments of painting souvenir development in North West Ethiopia taking the case from the historic city of Gondar. Qualitative data were collected through the use of key informant interview and document analysis to complement each other. Relevant respondents from traditional painting artisans, souvenir shop owners/managers and culture and tourism experts were sampled through data saturation approach. The interpretation of data used a thematic descriptive approach that utilizes a theme summary data and unattributed quotes to illustrate dominant issues in respondents own words. The research disclosed that the development of painting souvenir handcraft in and around Gondar city has been impeded by poor startup capital, weak marketing strategy, poor technology transfer system, and weak capacity building intervention together with the disjointed bargaining power of artisans. Hence, attention should be towards addressing these challenges as far as the issue of traditional painting souvenir development in and around the historic city of Gondar is concerned.