Ethiopia makes millenium marketing move

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism carried out the promotions in collaboration with the African Tourism Association.

Sisay Getachew, head of the the tourism marketing promotion department in the ministry, said Sunday, that the ministry had carried out the promotions in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Houston.

In the lead-up to the celebrations, American tour operators will also be given presentations in this regard.

Activities aimed at enabling Ethiopia to efficiently use the tourism sector during the millennium celebrations would be carried out, while a package on the country's image in the new millennium has been designed.

The package, which was designed in collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines, tour operators, hotels and other bodies in the tourism sector, includes various incentives for tourists set to visit the north African nation during the millennium festival.

The ministry has prepared fliers, posters, stickers, magazines and gift articles that promote the tourist attractions of the country, Mr Getachew added.

A similar promotion was carried out in Jamaica in March. It is expected that at least 30,000 Jamaicans will visit Ethiopia for the celebrations.

Ethiopia's Coptic calendar

Ethiopians celebrated Christmas day, 1999, on January 7 this year, and are now looking forward to celebrating the year 2000, when 1999 on the Coptic calendar ends on 12 September 2007 (by the reckoning of the Gregorian calendar).

The Ethiopian calendar system is one of a kind, as it was developed by the indigenous Coptic church.

The church used ancient Egyptian astronomic calculations, the Jewish calendar and the Julian calendar, which was adopted under Julius Caesar and is the root of all Christian date calculators.

In Europe however, in 1582, the continent shifted to the Gregorian calendar which is still used in the Western world, and now sets most of us in January 2007.

Ethiopia retains its Coptic calendar to this day, which sets them in mid-1999.

In South Africa, and in much of the Western World, the new millennium came seven years ago, bringing with it uncertainties and fears.

These ranged from apprehension about the end of the world and unrealised fears about the Millennium Bug, which was to have waylaid computer systems switching from 1999 to 2000.

But, this is not so for the Ethiopians - they're ready to party and want the rest of the continent to join them for "A Truly African Millennium".

Celebrate worldwide

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, speaking at an event tied to the African Union's Head of State Summit in January this year, said the Ethiopian millennium festival was not only confined to Ethiopians but should include all Africans.

"It is therefore natural to see our African brothers, who had some seven years ago celebrated the European millennium with the rest of the world, embrace our millennium as their own.

"By extension, our millennium festival is also for Ethiopia's friends everywhere in the world.

"We therefore extend our fraternal invitation especially so to our African brothers to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ethiopians as we celebrate this unique millennium," the Prime Minister said.

The Ethiopian Millennium Festival National Council was established by the Ethiopian government to arrange the celebrations.

In line with the millennium project, 15 programmes are in place to mark the change.

These include building museums and communication centres to keep people informed about their history, heritage and new developments in Ethiopia.

Published courtesy of BuaNews