For a long time, Ethiopia was described by other people. This is a country with three thousand years of history, the only African nation never colonized, the birthplace of coffee and home to the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela. Yet many people abroad knew it through a few old images. That is changing, and this time the pictures are coming from visitors holding their own phones.
A country’s image now travels faster than any campaign. One video can reach millions of people in a few hours, and viewers trust someone walking down a real street more than they trust a billboard. Addis Ababa has become part of that conversation. The corridor development, the new parks, the clean walkways and the railway all show up on camera and creators with very different audiences keep pointing at the same thing: this is a capital that is visibly changing.
The biggest example came in January 2026, when IShowSpeed arrived in Addis Ababa on his 28-day tour of Africa. Ethiopia was his tenth stop out of twenty. His live stream passed 270,000 concurrent viewers, according to K24 Digital and BellaNaija who reported it as the most-watched stream of the entire tour. He rode a scooter through the city, visited an Orthodox church, tried injera, walked through Merkato and learned the eskista dance. After attending the Ethiopian coffee ceremony he said, “I’ve already got a lot of energy after drinking Ethiopian coffee.” Adanech Abiebie, Mayor of Addis Ababa, said of the visit, “This is just the beginning.” One of the local organisers said that many digital creators used to skip Ethiopia because of misperceptions and that only one day of streaming helped change that.
The Arab world has been watching, too. Khalid Al Ameri, who has more than six million YouTube followers, visited the Adwa Victory Memorial and spoke about what the victory means to Africans. He praised kitfo and raw meat, admired the coffee ceremony and told his followers they should come and see it for themselves.
Ali Dawud Haddad, a Saudi photographer and traveler, said that the change he has seen over ten years is visible month by month, and that he is working to make Ethiopia a first choice for Saudi and Arab families.
Dawud Akhundzada, a traveler of Azerbaijani origin with about two million followers on Facebook and one million on YouTube, showed his audience the corridor roads, the coffee culture and the railway. He then went north to Lalibela, where he called Bete Giyorgis, the church carved down into a single block of rock, one of the most remarkable pilgrimage sites in the world. EBC’s reporting also lists Dylan Page among the international creators who have shared the city with their audiences.
The numbers are moving in the same direction. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) reported more than 1.4 million foreign visitors and over $5.2 billion in revenue for the 2025/26 fiscal year and the government is now aiming for more than 1.6 million visitors in 2026/27. A viral clip cannot explain those figures on its own, but a clip is how many people first hear about a place.
Attention only becomes tourism when the place lives up to it, and this is where Ethiopia has an advantage. Lalibela’s churches date from the 12th and 13th centuries. Adwa is a source of pride across the whole continent. The coffee ceremony is something people still do in their homes and nobody staged it for the cameras. What is new is that the world is finally looking, and the country is investing to make visiting easier. Creators can bring the curiosity, but roads, services and hospitality have to be ready to meet it.
Ethiopia is not discovering tourism. It is showing the world what it has always had, at a moment when the world is paying attention. If that curiosity keeps meeting a welcoming and proud country, this may be remembered as the time Ethiopia stopped being described by outsiders and started being seen firsthand.
By Amen Biniyam
References
1. AllAfrica, “Ethiopia: How a Single Visit Put Addis Ababa in the Global Spotlight,” 16 January 2026. https://allafrica.com/stories/202601160592.html
2. K24 Digital, “Fans go wild as IShowSpeed visits Ethiopia after Kenya trip,” 13 January 2026. https://k24.digital/entertainment/fans-go-wild-as-ishowspeed-visits-ethiopia-after-kenya-trip/amp
3. BellaNaija, “‘Africa Is Not What I Thought’: Streamer IShowSpeed Completes 20-Country Continental Tour,” January 2026. https://www.bellanaija.com/2026/01/ishowspeed-africa-tour-2026-highlights/
4. BBC Africa via AOL, “‘I want to show the world what Africa is’: YouTube star brings joy and tears on tour.” https://www.aol.com/articles/want-show-world-africa-youtube-002111443.html
5. Xinhua via The Star, “Ethiopia attracts over 1.4 mln foreign visitors in 2025/26 fiscal year: PM,” 2 July 2026. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/world/2026/07/02/ethiopia-attracts-over-14-mln-foreign-visitors-in-202526-fiscal-year-pm
6. GNA/TV BRICS, “Ethiopia targets 1.6 million international visitors in 2026/27,” 9 October 2026. https://gna.org.gh/2026/10/ethiopia-targets-1-6-million-international-visitors-in-2026-27/
