The articles and links on the ‘Views on Tourism’ blog have been carefully selected with the objective to support the Bangladeshi Tourism players with knowledge and inspiration on sustainable development. This being said the majority of information is also useful for an international audience facing similar tourism challenges or the urge to think out the box.
The information available on this blog furthermore follows two fundamental positions on tourism developing approaches:
• Knowledge and network are the best sources to increase professionalism, sustainability and competitiveness in all levels of the tourism sector.
• Developing and maintaining a desired tourism product or destination includes both focus on customer demand and a strategically sustainable development approach, which takes the economy, environment and social development in a region into consideration.
Bangladeshi tourism
In Bangladesh, tourism has since the 1990s been a small but rapidly growing sector of the economy, but Bangladesh is still one of the countries in the South Asian region with the least arrivals and the lowest revenue earned from the tourism industry.
Even so Lonely Planet, who in the absolute world lead of publishing travel guides and guidebooks, elected Bangladesh as one of the top ten interesting travel destination in 2009.
The country introduction in ‘Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2009′ is unplayable in terms of national image branding:
Let’s get this straight from the start. Bangladesh is not the country of disappointment as portrayed in ‘Brick Lane’ or by the international media, nor is it merely the poorly endowed cousin of India. Instead Bangladesh is a revelation that actually leaves India looking a little worse for a wear.
There should be no doubt national as well as international: Bangladeshi tourism sector has indeed potential to develop – if the country learns from the success and failures of other tourism destinations.
This is the profound conviction of Majbritt Thomsen, a Danish expatriate with a MA in tourism, living and traveling in Bangladesh since late 2007, a study done by her on the potential of the national tourism sector and contact with a variety of people related to the national tourism sector.
The Views On Tourism project developed as her one woman project since late 2008, based on an urge to facilitate Bangladeshi access to tourism knowledge and networking. The ultimate vision is to encourage a sustainable tourism movement in Bangladesh.
The Views On Tourism project also include two networking initiatives: the LinkedIn group Views On Tourism – Bangladeshi network and discussion and an overview on the multiple Bangladeshi tourism players’. Read more on the blog pages Be a member and BD Tourism .
Several seminars has also been hosted by The Views On Tourism Project in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, to spread the word on the status of the national tourism sector, the potential of a sustainable tourism development and the concept of the Views On Tourism Project. Follow the links to download the two first seminars from November and December 2009 Views On Tourism on the sustainable tourism potential in Bangladesh and the role of a tourism policy and Views on Tourism on the sustainable tourism potential in Bangladesh .
It is the hope that by learning about the Views On Tourism services, you will be inspired to take sustainable actions in the development of your local tourism sector.
