Development of tourism industry in Bangladesh: Issues and strategies

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the countries of South Asia and located in North-Eastern part of this region. If Bangladesh is known at all in the world of tourism, it is essentially because of the world’s longest unbroken, clean sandy beach at Cox’s bazaar, the largest mangrove forest of the world-the home of the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger and spotted deer at Sundarban and the hospitable and open hearted people of Bangladesh. This is a country where genuine adventure is not just a possibility but a certainty. Lonely Planet ranked Bangladesh as the best value destination for the year 20111 2. As a destination for tourism, Bangladesh is truly hard to beat. Yet the most notable feature of the country’s topography is the diversity of its landscape; it is characterized by wooded marshy lands and jungles with deep forest regions in sylhet, Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban hill districts, Sundarbans ( the World Heritage site), Mymensingh and Tangail; rare beauty spot of sunrise and sunset in fascinating kuakata; the oldest archeological site in Mahasthangarh; the unseen relics of long forgotten Buddhist kingdoms, lush and lurid tea plantations; tribal groups with Burmese faces; glorious beaches that stretch for eternity; fresh water dolphins and deep water whales and many other delightful beauties of cultural and historical heritage. These treasures are relatively unknown in the world and are rich resources for the development of tourism in Bangladesh. But time has not yet past over. Still there are lots of scopes and opportunities if Bangladesh attempts to highlight it as a tourist destination to the potential tourists properly through implementation of some strategies like taking an effective promotional measure, can take some initiatives to develop some infrastructural facilities, facilitate easy access to different destination, building better image of Bangladesh and ensuring safety and security of tourists, the country would be able to earn many times higher than the present by attracting more tourists within a short time. But unfortunately, this sector has remained almost in the dark and failed to draw proper attention to the government and the policy makers. Against this back drop, research needs to explore the facts related to the sector for its ongoing development in terms of developing various sectors of the tourism industry. Hence a study on this area is essential to uncover the relevant facts. The main objective of this study is to examine the various issues towards tourism development of Bangladesh and take an attempt to establish overall directions for tourism development and suggest effective tourism strategies and policies to alleviate the problems resulting from previous unplanned tourism development. With this motto the research has been conducted which was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. Research data were collected from the tourists, local government officials, police officers, local community, owners / top executives from the hotels and tour operators in each study area of Coz’s Bazar, St. Martin, Sundarban and Kuakata. The respondents were randomly selected to complete the questionnaire at the time of their visit in the study area. The responses were analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) and computer programme. This software helped to organize the data into tables, charts and graphs and also perform statistical calculations that were pertinent to the data analysis process. The research findings identify that there are some gap between expectation and experience regarding some issues like current tourism performance by tourism stakeholders, promotional measures undertaken by tourism stakeholders, destination image building, enhancing tourist satisfaction and safety and security issues of tourists which hinder the development of tourism industry in Bangladesh. As a result, policy implications emerging from the results presented in this thesis are discussed and future strategies are suggested.