Bangladesh is badly in need of recovering and growing its undersized international tourism sector, said Syed Ghulam Qadir, secretary general of the World Tourism Network in Bangladesh, at a seminar on Sunday titled “Roadmap for Tourism Recovery: Present Bangladesh Context”.
Qadir highlighted the potential benefits of a booming international tourism sector, saying it could act as a vehicle for development, image building, and a major generator of employment – particularly for women.
Bangladesh’s tourism industry contributed 3.2% to the country’s GDP last year, with 555,000 foreign visitors arriving in the country. According to government statistics, the majority of these were business travelers and officials, not leisure visitors, and tourism in the country relies mostly on domestic tourists.
Qadir said Bangladesh’s international tourism sector is far behind its goals, which he attributed primarily to negligence, bureaucracy and absence of political will.
Both domestic and international tourism were also severely impacted by this year’s July-August uprising, with hotel occupancy dropping to 10-15% on average, though that has now improved to 30-35%.
Qadir said he believes the tourism industry could quickly bounce back and develop in the presence of a crisis management plan.
He presented the example of Sri Lanka, where tourism was decimated by a terrorist bombing in 2019, but quickly recovered after authorities visited markets to present their destination as safe for tourists.
Qadir’s Quick Recovery Plan includes: creating a crisis management plan, strengthening tourist police for safe tourism, ensuring information is disseminated quickly in the country, promoting tourism through appointing an international PR agency, creating an E-Visa system, deploying tourism officials to Bangladeshi missions in other countries, using Biman to highlight tourism, utilizing Bangladeshi diasporas abroad to advertise Bangladesh, and recognizing tour operators.
All of this could be possible as tourism is now under the supervision of the Head of State – something that the sector has long demanded, according to Qadir.
