Tourism Ethiopia, Facebook collaborate to offer digital marketing

ADDIS ABABA – Tourism Ethiopia in collaboration with Facebook have announced the launch of Boost with Facebook for Tourism Ethiopia – a digital marketing programme for Ethiopian small and medium businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The programme is being implemented by Summer Media, a local digital marketing company in Ethiopia.

The tourism and hospitality industries were hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Facebook’s Global State of  Small Business Report released last year.

The programme, which was launched in August 2020 as a pilot programme in Ethiopia, aims to help 5,000 businesses in the tourism sector learn how to use the Facebook family of apps such as acebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to boost their businesses’ marketing efforts online.

“Tourism Ethiopia is delighted to work with Facebook and Summer Media to implement the Boost with Facebook for Tourism Ethiopia,” said Weldegebrial Berhe, Marketing Director at Tourism Ethiopia.

“We encourage tourism stakeholders and SMBs to sign up and equip themselves with the necessary digital marketing skills they need to recover from the losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and to enhance the online presence of Ethiopia as a tourist destination,” he added.

The programme is currently being run virtually through instructor-led live webinars session’s led by Summer Media. It aims to help its participants identify business constraints caused by COVID-19, learn how to manage stranded assets and develop new strategies and business initiatives to survive the pandemic.

Mercy Ndegwa, Facebook’s Head of Public Policy in East & Horn of Africa, said the company “remain committed to supporting governments and the private sector across the region in recovering their economies due to the COVID-19 pandemic”.

“It is now more important to equip and empower businesses, communities and the next generation of leaders to better utilise the power of digital tools and take full advantage of what the internet has to offer,” Ndegwa said.

The programme also equips SMB’s with skills on building an online presence with Facebook, storytelling on Instagram, connecting with audiences through Facebook groups, growing business through Whatsapp and implementing advertising strategies on Facebook’s family of apps.