Abstract

Visitor management is a practical tool for promoting sustainable tourism development through regulating visitor activities to minimize negative impacts on the site. The main purpose of this study was to investigate visitor management as a tool for sustainable tourism development in Fasil Ghebbi, Ethiopia. The study employed descriptive design in line with mixed research approach. Consequently, 246 international and domestic visitors were selected using convenience sampling and 6 key informants selected using purposive sampling. Questionnaire, interview and observation were data collection instruments. Descriptive statistics was applied to analyze quantitative data using SPSS version 25 and qualitative data was analyzed thematically. Based on the findings of the study, practices of visitor management tools in Fasil Ghebbi were found poor and there were many challenges in implementing visitor management such as low level of implementation, limited stakeholder participation, lack of budget and scant attention, lack of skilled human power, very basic visitor facilities and management tools, lack of awareness and negligence of responsibility in the compound.

Key words: Fasil Ghebbi, challenges, practices, sustainable tourism, visitor management.