Published in the magazine of Addis Ababa Tourism Commission

I have been hearing the dissatisfactions from many foreign tourists towards the tourist attractions in Addis Ababa such as museums and churches. They would say that there are things interesting enough to visit but their values are degraded due to the poor management, leaving bitter experiences to tourists that even worse result in the negative impression of over all tourism in Addis Ababa.
That means, no matter how well the Addis Ababa Tourism Commission (AATC) promotes its city as a competitive tourist destination, the negative word of mouth perhaps through the Internet nowadays lead to the loss of potential tourists. In other words, each place of visit and each interaction with people in Addis affect the overall experience of Addis Ababa.

To show the glimpse of the reality of tourist’s experience, I picked up three key attractions that could determine the tourist’s impression of Addis. In each attraction, I pretended that I am a tourist, who cannot speak Amharic at all. I was also accompanied by my Ethiopian friend to be a witness for my experience.

Ethnological Museum
Visited on August 18 (Sat) 4:00 PM

After I entered the Addis Ababa University, since there is no direction indicator to the museum, I had to ask the security guard who was unfriendly and without saying anything, just pointed to the direction.

At the museum entrance, I saw guards sitting inappropriately as shown in the photo (Photo 1). When I went to the cashier to pay the entrance fee, I read an arrogant sign posted “Pay here”, which created an uncomfortable feeling of what’s coming next. At the starting point of main exhibit area, I saw a sign that says, “Museum Guide”, but the guide was not there.

“Where is the guide?” I asked one of the staff members who was asking visitors to leave their cameras on the shelves. “The museum guide is free, but there are many visitors today, so the guide can only give the highlights and there are only two guides here,” he replied.

But whether the museum is busy or not, it is not my concern. And besides, I paid 20 Birr (only 3 Birr for Ethiopians) for the entrance. I politely asked him again for the complete guiding service. He reluctantly agreed and I was surprised to find that he himself was a guide. So when he started guiding for me, there was nobody at the entrance to check for the camera or to orient the visitors.

His explanations were standard except that he was constantly saying “do you understand?” which sound a bit annoying as I had been telling him that I was listening. I was more concerned of him obstructing the other visitors while he was explaining to me. In the beginning, he seemed unmotivated but towards the end, he became friendly and I was pleased with his guiding.

However, the other museum guide, who is supposed to give the explanations of Haile Selassie’s room was awful. All he did was just pointing at the display and saying the one short sentence like “This is Korea” (meaning the gift to the Emperor from Korea) or “This is Taitu” (pointing at her portrait). Even worse, I heard him asking my Ethiopian friend to explain to me.

The displays, although they were well presented by the foreign countries’ assistance, the sections which were not done by them were poorly presented, such as the display of coins or Emperor Haile Selassie’s room that left without sufficient explanations. Some explanations were also fading and the others do not have explanations at all.

There was also a problem of lighting. Some light bulbs were out of use and when I asked the reason, I was told that the university does not have a budget to buy the extra light bulbs. Even worse there is no generator, so the visitors during the black out time have to use the flash lights – this is very pathetic.

Another concern is the security. Even though the entire museum is full of valuable items, I only saw the two guides in the entire display area. In such way, how can the museum be able to protect these valuable items from damages by the visitors or even worse, from being stolen by thieves?

The National Museum of Ethiopia
Visited on August 18 (Sat), 5:00 PM

I was greeted by the no service minded security guard at the entrance who ignored me when I asked him in which direction the museum is. At the reception area, I had a quite unpleasant experience. Please note that I did not come with any hostility at all, but acted normal just like other tourists. When I approached a cashier to pay the entrance fee, cashier said “come back tomorrow”.

When I asked why, one of the museum staff said “you don’t have time”. “But the museum is open until 5:30 p.m. Right?” I said. “Right, but we will turn off the light at 5:15p.m. So you don’t have time. Come back tomorrow,” the staff said. But I insisted, “I am leaving tomorrow morning from Addis, so I need to see it today.” Then, suddenly the person who is in the higher position than this staff came to me and said “mom, come back tomorrow”. “Why do you turn off the light at 5:15 p.m.?” I asked him. “Because we have to close the museum at 5:30 p.m.” he replied.

Of course, this did not make sense to me at all. So I continued my complaint “but in other museums…” He interrupted me and said, “that’s up to them, we have our own rules”.
“Anyway, I want to take a look because I cannot come back tomorrow.” I repeated. Then finally, I was told to complete my visit within the remaining 15 minutes and I began my visit with irritation.

Since I knew they have a free guiding service, I asked for it but I was told, “no guiding service because there is no time”. I am glad that it was me, not a real tourist, who experienced such unacceptable rude reception. The displays were horribly presented. ‘Lucy’, the highlight of the museum, was kept in disorganized room with few explanations that I felt sorrow for her. Selam, which should be the new highlight, was also poorly presented.

My overall impression of the displays is the carelessness of the museum to protect the valuable items because they were just laying or hanging with insufficient explanations and even worse, some of them were with debris. (Photo 2 and 3)

Very interestingly, the light was still on at 5:15 pm and there were still other visitors in the museum. The staffs seem to be excited to go home that they start talking and laughing very loudly disturbing the ambiance.

At the end, I went back to these staff and curiously asked them why the light did not turn off at 5:15 pm. One of them replied “we didn’t turn off just for you”. Then I asked them again, “why I could not have a guide service?” Then the reply this time was “because we have only two guides; one is on annual leave and the other was in other section”.

The staffs were about to be suspicious of my questions and when I was about to leave, they said in Amharic, “this is not her business. Why is she asking such questions? Is she going to write a complaint?”

With disappointment, I reached the exit. There, I saw a sign board that says: “Principles of Ethical Public Service” under this phrase, ‘Integrity, Honesty, Responsiveness, and so, on’ were listed. But obviously, none of these were followed by the staff I encountered at the National Museum.

Lion Zoo
Visited on August 18 (Sat) 3:00 pm

Similar problem as museums, it has insufficient explanations with some incorrect English grammar. The lions were kept in the small blank cage in miserable way that I am sure visitors from the countries with the concerns for animal rights will feel sorry. Moreover, the staff on site did not seem to care about the animals so they were letting the visitors to give biscuits to the apes.

Most of the written explanations are only names of the animals, like “Mscovy Duck”. These names could not explain much by themselves. But they need additional information like their habitat, what they eat, and all other interesting facts.

The worst part of this zoo is the pricing which charged the visitors 20 Birr for photographing and 150 Birr for video recording!

I think these experiences are enough for this article. But I would also like to mention that I tried to visit the Addis Ababa Museum on August 7 (Tue) at 4:40 PM, but it was already closed even though it should be open until 5:30 pm on weekdays.

My Recommendations
I would especially like to present recommendations for the museums. Museums in other successful tourist destinations endeavor to be creative to attract visitors.
So how can museums become more attractive? For the promotion, see how museums in the USA advertise the Lucy from Ethiopia. One museum has this slogan “Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia”. Isn’t this sound exciting? They may also promote it through organizing events at the museums that could be a classic music concert or some fun activities for the children.

The actual displays of course should not be just laying, but must add the value. For example, in the musical instruments display room the displays could have background music.

The displays explanations should be clear and inviting, not like “this is a basket from _____ region”. But they may include their importance, usage, distinctiveness, and other interesting related facts. This applies to museum guides as well. Perhaps, a guide, I think, who wears the traditional Ethiopian clothes is more attractive than the one who does not wear these clothes.

To work with guide shortage, I would suggest to give the open tour in a specific time. For example, the board at the entrance says “Museum tour by the guide will starts every hour”, then any visitors are able to pop in the tour.

Some visitors may need to take time to see certain items, like an art work or they may feel tired walking around. In this case, it is important to provide some comfortable seats in museums. For not letting the people get lost in the museum or let the hurry tourists visit in efficient way, the floor plan and directions must be there. For example, the Ethnological Museum does not have sign leading to the upstairs’ art and crafts section, so I was about to miss this wonderful exhibits.

For many tourists, it can be difficult to find the entrances of the museums. So it is advisable to have sign boards at the entrances near the gate with information on opening hours and phone numbers.

Such written notices and boards should be polite. The notice that says: “Don’t take photos!!!” (photo 4), should be written in a different way.

It is also necessary to provide brochures that introduce museums. These brochures not only help the visitors to have the primary information on the museums, but they could also serve as souvenirs.

As museums are tourism establishments, the service is very important aspect. All the employees who interact with the visitors should be trained for quality service. The rude security guard at the entrance is unacceptable as the experience of the museum starts from the gate.

The museums and any tourist attractions should be kept clean all the time that must include clean toilets (Lion Zoo was the worse!).

The budget or funding is important to make such changes. Many museums in UK or USA are free because they operate with donations and also many museums staffs are volunteers from the community, who are proud of being part of their museum.

Museums can also generate income through souvenirs, but they must be selected and displayed well. Otherwise, they lose the opportunity of “museum visitors” as “potential customers”.

Original souvenirs can be sold at museums and at other tourist sites. In the Lion Zoo, for example, items that have lions’ shapes or images can be produced and sold by organizing local hand craft workers.

Instead of making money out of taking away the cameras of visitors and let the local photographers sell one photo for 6 Birr like in the Lion Zoo, let the visitors rent and wear the Ethiopian traditional cloth and take photo in creative setting.

There are many other ways to generate revenue just like other museums around the world, so just taking extra entrance fee from foreigners are not a smart solution.

At last, I strongly request the AATC to be engaged in upgrading the tourist attractions and I must say, they must start reading the complains from the past visitors as Japanese good business person would say “the customer complains are the treasure for improvement”. It is also important for AATC to visit the attractions as “spotters”, pretending they are the tourists. Such way of inspection is quite common nowadays and it will reveal many things just like how I have discovered.