Abstract

The development of tourism sector was essential in the socio-economic development of nations. In a developing country like Ethiopia, the development of tourism industry is closely linked with the development of hotel sector because the majority of customers of this sector come from international tourists.  Bahir Dar located along the Historic Route, the town and its environ are endowed with both natural and cultural heritages. In this regard, the Blue Nile falls, the Lake Tana and its island monasteries have been potential attractions for the tourism industry. This potential was not yet fully exploited partly due to the low development of accommodation and hospitality services to the tourists in the hotel sector. Recently, even though the tourism industry began to win scholarly attention from various disciplines, nonetheless, the hotel sector still given little focus. Therefore, the major objective of this article is to examine the historical developments of hotel services in Bahir Dar town. The paper is done after consulting both written secondary and archival sources, and  interviews made with key informants. So, this paper provides a bird’s eye view on the historical survey of hotel services in Bahir Dar town since 1930s.

Key words: Bahir Dar, hotels, tourism, accommodation.