Eritrea's Tourism Strategy Targets Heritage and the Red Sea Coast

Eritrea is developing a tourism strategy built on heritage architecture, Red Sea coastal assets and archaeological sites.

The heritage case is strong and internationally recognised. Asmara was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2017 as an exceptionally complete example of early-twentieth-century modernist urban planning, with rationalist, futurist and art deco buildings, including the Fiat Tagliero service station, the Cinema Impero and the central market. Few cities preserve an ensemble of that period so intact.

The coastal assets are the Dahlak archipelago, more than two hundred islands in the Red Sea off Massawa, with coral reefs comparable to better-known Red Sea diving destinations and far less visited. Massawa itself has Ottoman and Egyptian-era architecture, much of it damaged during the independence war.

The archaeology reaches further back. Adulis, on the Red Sea coast, was a major port of the Aksumite kingdom, trading with Rome, Arabia and India. Qohaito and Matara in the highlands are pre-Aksumite and Aksumite sites.

The constraints are practical. International air connectivity is limited, internal travel requires permits, hotel capacity outside Asmara is thin, and the visa process is a barrier. Tourism at scale would require changes in each of these.

There is a diaspora market that partly bypasses these constraints. Eritreans abroad returning to visit family constitute an existing travel flow, and heritage tourism aimed at second-generation diaspora is a segment with a lower access barrier than general international tourism.