Revamping the tourism sector

Tourism is going to herald a new era of enhanced economic activities throughout the world.  The world will witness movement of more than one billion tourists at the end of this year, 2015. By the year 2030, it will touch the two billion mark. This indicates an overwhelming increase in the related activities for economic gains.
Tourism is now not just an industry; it is a wide issue entailing numerous opportunities across the globe. The more tourists move, the more opportunities created. That's why many countries are focusing on how to make a double digit growth of tourist arrivals. Along with diversified opportunities, it also creates many challenges. These challenges are different in nature and vary from country to country.
     The global tourism industry is growing fast since the last decade. Many countries are currently stressing upon the tourism industry because of its unlimited opportunities. The question now is: by overcoming the challenges and exploiting the opportunities, how a country like Bangladesh, which is at the take-off stage, can increase its share in the global tourism business? Bangladesh tourism industry has been witnessing a very slow progress over the decades. There are many inadequacies, failures too, that have been impeding a steady growth. Many countries that lagged behind ours in creating a suitable infrastructure to facilitate tourists' arrival have, by dint of their proactive policies, advanced far ahead of us, and are currently in a position to be immensely benefited from it. Cambodia, Vietnam, the Maldives have done wonders in their respective tourism sectors. Tourists' arrival in Cambodia in 1993 was fewer than one hundred thousand, compared to twice as much in Bangladesh in that year. Presently, Cambodia is receiving tourists about 10 times that of Bangladesh. In 2014, Cambodia received 4.5 million tourists. The figure for Bangladesh was little over four hundred thousand.
For desired growth of tourism in the country, public-private partnership (PPP) could have been an effective mechanism. Unfortunately, till date, no tangible PPP project in the tourism sector is seen in the country. The bottlenecks for private investment in tourism industry could not be eliminated due to lack of proper law.
Despite so many constraints some tourist locations have been developed in various parts of the country by the private investors with world class facilities. Had the government been proactive, things would have been far better.
The prevailing inadequacies call for development of required infrastructure in locations of tourist attraction with all amenities including safety and security. Creation of proper human resource is a simultaneous process. A comprehensive marketing initiative is also required. If the country can attract at least one per cent of global tourist arrivals, it may have a great impact on the economy of the country.
The writer is a tourism analyst. [email protected]