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TADESSE & FRIENDS

What we do differently....

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The Ethiopian tourism industry is pretty heavily regulated. The startup costs of a tour agency are very high and often only accessible to people with access to foreign investment or the diaspora. At the same time, tour guides are licensed at both the federal and local levels. Federally licensed tour guides can operate pretty much everywhere, except for certain sites (such as the Lalibela rock-hewn churches in town) that are only accessible to licensed local guides. Local guides are restricted to their areas.​

 

We are a group of federally and locally licensed guides with lots of experience with international clients and operate throughout Ethiopia.

We work closely with a network of local guides at each site. You save money and get the best local expertise. You don't have to pay for someone to follow you from site to site (unless you really want someone to accompany you). Instead, we trust that you can get on a plane yourself, and we pick you up at each location and drop you off at your next destination. Or we arrange for transport for you and you'll be greeted by another local guide on your arrival.  We also save on our overhead costs by using our smartphones as offices and a network of trusted drivers and vendors. Once we know what you want, we negotiate the best deals for you. 

 

With us, you don't pay for:

  • Office space in Addis Ababa

  • A fleet of cars that you are not using

  • Premium of having someone in Addis Ababa organising things for 

  • Unless you really want to: the cost of airfares etc for a guide to accompany you from city to city

 

You DO pay for:

  • Local knowledge and expertise

  • The time and experience of your guide

  • The transport that you are using: car, mule, tuk-tuk, whatever...

  • The costs of a community or family hosting you: accommodation, food, and anything else you use. (What you pay goes to them, we don't take a cut.)

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