Tourism creates employment. According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), the tourism industry accounts for
11 per cent of total global employment. Unfortunately, tourism is an underdeveloped sector in Bangladesh
Tourism bonanza waiting to be tapped
Md Amin Ibrahim
In fact, some government high-ups and policy makers have hazy as well as negative ideas about tourism. They firmly believe that to attract foreign tourists to Bangladesh, the country needs to have nightlife facilities, bars, massage parlours etc., as if these are the essence of tourism.
One of our ex-state ministers for tourism of a past government said in a seminar that tourists would come to Bangladesh if the price of alcoholic beverages could be brought down. One ex-finance minister of the country said in a meeting, Tourist-ra kee Bangladeshe milad porte aibo? (Will tourists come to Bangladesh to attend milad?) He was indicating the lack of western style nightlife in Bangladesh.
With this sort of idea, our government policy makers had set their minds on setting-up an exclusive tourist zone near Coxs Bazaar, with all nightlife facilities, where domestic tourists would not be allowed.
To change this mindset, our present government policy makers need to know that at present the number of international eco-tourists is more than one hundred million; and they are not after the nightlife in the country, which they go to visit. These eco-tourists visit a country only to experience the nature, culture, and heritage of that country.
The number of eco-tourists in the world has been increasing by more than ten percent a year. Initially, Bangladesh may set its target to attract one million eco-tourists a year. To achieve that target, it will have to chalk out a down-to-earth tourism marketing strategy and go for aggressive marketing in countries, which produce most of the outbound tourists.
Only fifteen countries produce 80% of the total international outbound tourists. These countries are to be the focal points of our tourism marketing.
In 1998, Cambodia received ninety-six thousand tourists. But in that year Bangladesh received one hundred fifty thousand tourists. In 2006, Cambodia received about two million tourists and Bangladesh, two hundred thousand. The only tourism product in Cambodia is its cultural heritage, and the Angkor Wat -- an 11th century temple. Cambodia earned $1 billion from tourism in 2006, while Bangladesh earned $89 million. The pattern has hardly changed from that period.
Last year, Malaysia received more than thirteen
million tourists. A few days back, I had a talk with a lady from Uzbekistan. She did her Masters in tourism from Scotland, and spent three years in Malaysia, working there as a teacher.
I asked her how she would compare Bangladesh with Malaysia from the tourism perspective. She said: What does Malaysia have except some beaches? But Bangladesh has so many tourism attractions. I dont know whether she was trying to make me happy, but I agree with her on the point that Bangladesh has so many world-class eco-tourism attractions.
Even our conception about the development of tourism in the country is not clear. Nowadays different organisations often organise tourism fairs in Bangladesh, in which mainly outbound tour packages are sold. Sending tourists from Bangladesh to other countries cannot be treated as the development of tourism in our country.
These fairs are sellers fairs in character from the perspective of Bangladesh because the foreign exhibitors or their counterparts in Bangladesh sell outbound tour packages, and only a few offer domestic tour packages. Instead of helping the country to earn foreign currency through tourism, the sellers fairs help in depletion of the foreign exchange reserve of the country.
We need buyers fairs, where foreign buyers (travel agents) will come to Bangladesh to get offers of tour packages, so that they may send tourists to our country. If we cannot arrange this type of fair, then it is better for our country that we refrain from organising sellers fairs.
Anybody has the legal right to organise a sellers tourism fair; but they must not say that they are organising this sort of fair for the development of tourism in the country. Let us be more practical about the development of tourism in the country; let us develop it in the true sense, so that it contributes valuable foreign exchange to our state coffer, and help to develop the economy of the country.
A draft law for the development of tourism was adopted some years ago. It proposed a ten- year long mega plan for the development of the tourism sector in phases. But no more has been heard since then about the final making and adoption of this law.
It is envisaged that Bangladesh has the potential to earn a great deal of foreign currency by developing its tourism sector like the garments sector by using its geographic
location and manifold bounties to attract hordes of foreign tourists interested in ecological, heritage based and other forms of tourist attractions.
In the approved draft for tourism development, there is provision to establish a tourism board like in Thailand for accelerating the sector growth. There are also provisions for developing special tourist zones for foreigners as well as the development of 2,200 modern and attractive sites for tourists -- foreign as well as local ones. It is predicted that on full implementation of the mega plan, the number of foreign tourists could increase by some 4 million in the next ten years.
Indeed, tourism can be a very gainful sector for our economy if it can be properly developed. Some countries solely depend on tourism as their main sector of economy. Singapore is the leader of tourism based economy. 75% of the total national income of Singapore comes from this sector. Next to Singapore is Taiwan. They earn 65% of their total income from this. Then the following positions are Hong Kong, Philippine and Thailand. To see the magic of tourism, we dont need to go very far from our home. Take the example of Maldives. Apparently, the entire Maldivian economy depends on tourism.
From an account it is learned that, Bangladesh is one of the ten highly prospective markets for tourism. It has been observed that, the numbers of tourist are increasing every year in Bangladesh. But it also true that, the number of tourists in Bangladesh is not increasing at the rate of world increase. Tourism experts observe that, in near future most of the world tourists will be from Asia, mostly from India and China. 73% of them will visit Asian tourists spots. If Bangladesh succeeds to gain a portion of this market, then it would be a great boost to its economy.
These focuses are showing the horizon for investors to invest in this sector. Investors can invest in establishing infrastructures like entertaining facilities, accommodation facilities, communication facilities etc. from the marketing perspective. Investors can create one-stop services for the ease of visitors. There is scarcity of enough air routes between cities of our country. This can be a good sector for investment.
The government operated Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) has suggested to the government to offer 10 year tax holiday for investors in the tourism sector. This merits a serious consideration.
They also suggested changing the existing structure of BPC. There are also ideas of branding Bangladesh to the outer world. All of these suggestions and plans will have to energetically pursued.
The spin-offs from tourism are multi-faceted. It creates direct and indirect employment in a large number of service industries and in the growth of these industries. The spending by foreign tourists can be a big booster for the countrys foreign currency reserve.Considering these factors, the development of this sector would indeed deserve the greatest attention from the government.
The writer is a researcher on developmental issues
