1. General Introduction
In 2005 United Nations (UN) declared tourism as one of the most effective tools for sustainable growth, especially for poor, developing, and enraging countries. The reason behind this is that tourism contributes to five high priority socio-economic goals. These are the generation of income, employment, poverty reduction, improvement of the living standards, and foreign exchange. Foreign money earned from tourism business can be used to import capital goods, which later can be used for producing more goods and services. This will lead to higher economic growth.
On the other hand, it can create jobs for marginalised people. Furthermore, tourism is also considered as a factor for formulating pro-poor growth policies. With the help of pro-poor growth policies, the benefits of sustainable growth can be reached to the poor and alleviation of poverty will be much easier as well. Bangladesh, a country from South Asia, is one of the emerging economies in the world. On her 50th birthday in the year 2021, Bangladesh wishes to become an upper middle-income country, and by 2041, the country has the ambitious dream to become one of the developed countries. The tourism industry can play an inevitable role in this journey towards development as the country is blessed with natural beauties, vast coastline, and mangrove areas. However, tourism in Bangladesh is still neglected and has not been able to grow as expected. A major reason behind this is lack of proper tourism related book for Bangladesh, relevant tourism research, and guidelines on the tourism industry. Developing and documenting an academic book for Bangladesh tourism for a sustainable tourism policy will not only improve the socio-economic indicators of the local community, ecosystem, and biodiversity but also can alleviate poverty, provide assistance to the government for achieving sustainable economic growth in Bangladesh.
Furthermore, it can also become an alternate option for foreign exchange earnings, which can reduce the risk associated with the RMG industry. Therefore, focus on tourism can also influence greater economic prosperity. This book will provide a detailed discussion of the tourism-related issues in Bangladesh for academic practices at different universities both at home and abroad for gaining a clear understanding for Bangladesh tourism among the students and also for policy analysis and advice coordinated tourism policies for Bangladesh.
2. Overview of Tourism in Bangladesh
Roy and Roy (2015) argue that the variety of tourist spots and subsequent policies bring sustainable economic benefits in developing and emerging countries. Therefore, the tourism industry in Bangladesh is recognised as one of the important drivers of the economy and for sustainable development tourism friendly policy should be implemented in Bangladesh. For example, Amin (2010) and Salam (2014) highlight that the most significant economic feature of the tourism receipts is that it contributes to five high priority socio-economic goals of the developing and emerging countries: the generation of income, jobs creation, foreign exchange earnings, improvement of the living standards, and poverty reduction. But before any policy measurement and decision making, the existing natural and economic resources of the country should be accounted first for proper, accurate, and pre-sighted policy measurement. Laws (2002) state that the tourist attractions and the image of any country can influence the tourists to make decisions on their destinations. Thus, depicting the overall scenario of tourism areas in Bangladesh in this chapter is important to have a crystal idea for knowledge gathering and policy measurement.
Bangladesh, being located in the mid-connecting point of South and South East Asian countries, is a land of scenic beauty, ethnicity, unique cuisine, rich heritage and historical relics, profound religious sentiments and much more. The tourism sector of Bangladesh has much to offer to its local as well as foreign travelers. Elena et al., (2012) found that from the ancient period, Bangladesh is famous for her scenic beauty, rich cultural legacy, and friendliness of the people. Besides, tourism is one of the profitable sectors in Bangladesh. The country has much more to attract both domestic and international tourists such as archaeological sites, historical mosques and monuments, resorts, beaches, forests and tribal people, wildlife of various species and most of all sea-side spots. Tourist spots in Bangladesh are not concerted in any particular place; however, they are spread throughout the country. For example, in the northern part, there are many archaeological sites and historical places which are truly a centre of attractions for tourists. In the south-western part, there is the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest of the world with Royal Bengal Tiger and spotted deer. One of the world heritage sites, ‘the eighty-one domed Shat Gombuj Mosque’ in Bagherhat, made by great Muslim saint Khan Jahan Ali in the 15th century is also situated here which is a center of attraction for tourists from both local and international arenas. In the south-eastern part, there are natural and hilly areas like the Chittagong Hill Tracts, along with sandy sea beaches. In the north-eastern part, there is a green carpet of tea plants on small hillocks. The readers will be benefitted from this chapter as they will have a clear insight about Bangladesh tourism and do not need any secondary information.
References
Amin, S.B. (2010). Tourism development and economic growth in Bangladesh: An application of ARDL testing approach. Bank Parikrama 34-35, 60-82.
Elena, M., Lee, M.H., Suhartono, H., Hossein, I., Rahman, N.H.A., & Bazilah, N.A. (2012). Fuzzy series and sarima model for forecasting tourist arrivals to Bali. Technology Journal, 57 (1). 69-81.
Laws, E. (2003). Tourism Marketing: Quality and Service Management Perspectives, Thomson Learning.
Roy, S.C., and Roy, M (2015). Tourism in Bangladesh: Present Status and Future Prospects. International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration 1(8), 53-61.
Seratto, M., Valenzuela, M., & Rayas, V. (2013). Improving tourism competitiveness: The case of Mexico. Business and Economic Research. 3(1), 388-405.
Salam, R. (2014). Tourism & socio-economic development: Focus on Bangladesh, a destination country. International Journal of Business and Management 1(2), 88-98.
3. Economic Importance of Tourism in Bangladesh
Tourism contributes to five high priority socio-economic goals of the developing and emerging countries: the generation of income, jobs creation, foreign exchange earnings, improvement of the living standards, and poverty reduction in Bangladesh (Amin, 2010; Amin & Rahman, 2019). The existing empirical literature has been conducted on the causal relationship between tourism and economic growth and found a correlation between tourism and economic growth. (Brida et al., 2013; Njoya & Seetaram, 2018; Payne & Mervar, 2010). Tourism activities can also increase government revenue through taxes as different types of taxes are imposed on tourism goods. Tourism development and the subsequent revenues earned by the host government can result in a more productive workforce, increase the living standards, and lead to economic development. In Bangladesh, tourism can play an essential role in maintaining a healthy fiscal balance. Although the tourism industry has many non-economic developmental impacts, only the economic dimension of tourism will be highlighted for the chapter.
Foreign exchange earned by tourism industry can play a very significant role in Banglad
