Scenarios of Tourism in Bangladesh: A Cultural Perspective

Abstract

Cultural tourism has huge impacts on the tourism industry of destination countries. Bangladesh is of no exception to this. Cultural tourism, defined as travel that authentically represents the layers of a place and its people, helps make cross-cultural exchange, accelerate economic development, and create global peace and harmony. Despite Bangladesh's rich cultural heritage, including historical sites, festivals and arts, the country has not been able to attract a significant number of cultural tourists. This research addresses the challenges of cultural tourism development, dictates the ways of exploiting the opportunities of developing the in Bangladesh. These challenges include the lack of proper promotion, absence of community engagement, and poor cultural preservation system. Using data from four key tourist destinations (Dhaka, Cox's Bazar, Bandarban, and Sylhet), the study highlights the need for better management and strategies to promote cultural tourism development in Bangladesh. The findings emphasize the importance of cultural growth in enhancing tourist satisfaction and economic development. This research aims to provide policymakers, stakeholders, and local communities with insights for improving cultural tourism and bridging the existing research gaps in Bangladesh. Furthermore, this study explores the development strategies of cultural tourism in Bangladesh, focusing on variables such as cultural growth, tourist satisfaction, tourist arrivals, community engagement, and economic growth. Employing quantitative methods like Pearson Correlation, Multiple Regression, Path Analysis, and ANOVA, the research finds a significant positive relationship between these variables and cultural tourism development. Cultural growth is identified as critical for driving tourist satisfaction, increasing tourist arrivals, and engaging communities, which in turn fosters economic development. Despite Bangladesh’s rich cultural heritage, challenges such as inadequate promotion, lack of cultural preservation, and infrastructural limitations hinder the cultural tourism growth. The study also highlights the need for policy reforms, community engagement, and sustainable practices to overcome these obstacles. By emphasizing the relationships between cultural and economic growth, this research offers insights for policymakers and stakeholders to develop cultural tourism and enhance economic growth in Bangladesh. Further, research is recommended to refine the model by addressing the factors that did not show significant effects.