Aksum is recognized as the origin of Ethiopian ancient civilization which is one of the ancient civilizations of Africa. However, the numbers of tourists visiting Aksum are very small when compared with the potential. This inverse relationship between the tourism potentials and the actual performance of the sector in Aksum can be because of various challenges. Marketing related factors can be taken as among the key ones. Hence, the objective of this study is to investigate the challenges and opportunities of marketing Aksum as the best destination and suggest areas of intervention. The research design employed to conduct the study was descriptive and data were gathered from both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data collection instruments used includes repeated observations, interview, focus group discussion and questionnaire. Secondary data were gathered from books, journals and related documents. The findings of the research reveal that; lack of comprehensive tourism data, limited awareness on the importance of destination marketing, lack of effective market segmentation, lack of comprehensive marketing strategy, absence of tourism market research, insufficient marketing budget, branding problems, manpower problems, overdependence on traditional marketing channels are among the main challenges of tourism marketing in Aksum.

Keywords: : Aksum, challenges, Ethiopia, marketing, opportunities, promotion, tourism destination.