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 cooperation are the best sources to increase professionalism, sustainability and competitiveness in all levels of the tourism sector.
• Developing and maintaining a desired tourism product includes both focus on customer demand and a strategically sustainable destination 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, writer of the DANIDA report Introduction to the tourism industry in Bangladesh (2008) and contact with a variety of people and key stakeholders 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 an active sustainable tourism movement in Bangladesh.
The Views On Tourism Project furthermore encourage increased interaction among the Bangladeshi tourism stakeholders through two online initiatives.
First, an introduction of some of the key tourism players are provided at the blog page BD Tourism .
Second, the LinkedIn group Views On Tourism – Bangladeshi network and discussion provide an efficient and free of cost communication platform for the multiple tourism stakeholders. Read more about why network and discussion is crucial in the tourism industry here Be a member.
During 2009 and 2010 several seminar guest speaks has also been performed by The Views On Tourism Project in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. The goal has been 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 green link to get an overview of the PR initiatives , here you can also download all seminar guest presentations.
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.
June 2010 Majbritt Thomsen moved back to Denmark at that time the online awareness of the Views On Tourism Project included more than 57.000 blog readers and 324 network members. This proves that sustainable tourism has a future – also in Bangladesh. The Views On Tourism Project has furthermore showed its potential to become an online communication platform for a sustainable tourism movement in Bangladesh and South Asia. To further strengthen this sustainable tourism movement though, will require increased local commitment and long-term sustainable initiatives. But there is no doubt that if the tourism stakeholders in Bangladeshi and South Asia unite they have the resources, knowledge and visions to succeed.
Majbritt Thomsen will continue to manage the basic Views On Tourism services from Denmark and also share a network comment and a blog article once in a while. It is her hope to experience the growth of an active Bangladeshi and South Asian grass-root tourism movement through the free of cost Views On Tourism services.
This is interesting times ….
Yours sincerely, Majbritt Thomsen
