Over the decades, Tourism has become the fastest growing economic sector in the world. Day to day number of tourism destinations is increasing significantly. The business volume of the tourism industry is higher than other sectors in many countries. Presently, it is one of the major players in ‎economy, especially in developing countries.

Like other countries, Bangladesh should enhance the business in this sector. In this context, a slogan “Beautiful Bangladesh” and a logo “rising sun over the blue sky” have formed to promote our country to the world community for tourism. It was a great initiative to create a primary concept about Bangladesh in the world community. Has the primary concept about Bangladesh been created by the said slogan & logo? It is questionable now. Potentials of the tourism industry in Bangladesh are very high. But Bangladesh is failing to attract the target market using this slogan & logo for some problems in this sector as well as environmental problems in the country, though geographically & naturally Bangladesh is a very beautiful country. Said that Bangladesh is the darling child of nature.

Every year, many Bangladeshi tourists have gone to neighboring countries & others for tourism purpose but they would not like to go tourist spots in their self-country which is more natural & beautiful. Many reasons exist behind this trend. Though Bangladesh has owned the largest mangrove forest in the world and the natural habitat of the Royal Bengal Tiger-“The Sundarban”, the longest unbroken natural sea beach of the world-“Cox’s Bazar”, a small coral island with wonderful natural beauty in the sea Bay of Bengal- “St. Martin's Island”, one of the most beautiful natural romantic sea beach in the world from where both sunrise and sunset from the same spot is seen, also known as the daughter of the sea-“Kuakata”, the most attractive tourist spots situated at the border between Bangladesh and the India-“Jaflong & Bisnakandi”, the tribal life, tea garden, scenic beauty of hilly areas in Rangamati, Khagrachori, Bandarban and many more. Except those, there are many historical landmarks i.e. “Sonargaon”-the ancient capital of Bengal, “Mainamati”-the sign of ancient Buddhist civilization, a mid-15th century archeological and historical sign-“Sixty Tomb Mosque”, “Mahasthangarh- Paharpur Buddhist Monastery”, “Kantajee's Temple” and so on.

Reasons may be discouraged and failed to attract to the world community and Bangladeshi tourists to go to these attractive areas- i) Ineffective promotional activities using our slogan & logo. ii) Insecurity in the tourist spots iii) lack of information in internet search engine iv) Communication problem for broken road v) More expensive considering neighboring countries vi) Absence of Tourism products vii) Sub-Standard Infrastructure viii) Lack of world-class food ix) Dirtiness x) Spreading negative idea by world media regarding political unrest & terrorism xi) Language & visa problem etc.

These are an astonished matter that India & Myanmar are promoting their countries from tourist spots in Bangladesh. In the longest unbroken natural sea beach of the world “Cox’s Bazar”, where varieties national symbolic products or mementos of Myanmar is available to procure. Many foreign tourists procure these products or mementos & take these in their countries as a memento of tourism instead of Bangladeshi products. If they provide such products to their beloved friends & others, will they know Bangladesh? They will not know Bangladesh. Moreover, they will know Myanmar easily through their products or mementos. Others tourism spots in Bangladesh, more or less Indian products or mementos are available to procure. Are these positive scenarios to attract foreigner for tourism? Respective Department of our country should take initiative to provide restriction of products or mementos of neighboring countries & should take initiative to ensure quality Bangladeshi products as well as various types of symbolic items or mementos in the tourist spots to promote our country in the world community.

A tourist travel from one country to another sacrificing a huge amount of money for some recreation & relax irrespective of culture, religion, habit & sex. In accordance with mindset of tourists, others country have a necessary arrangement as well as tourism products as per demand of them to enjoy, satisfy & attract to foreigners & they are a success. Moderate restrictions or no restrictions exist to enjoy, recreation & relax in the others country for foreigners in the tourist spots. But there is nothing available in our tourism spots.

Apart from these, most of the foreigners do not know Bangladesh. Some foreigners know but they believe that Bangladesh is a very dirtiest, poorest, corrupted & political unrest country & this is not suitable for tourism. Who are the liable for creating these type of perception in the world community? Our political parties do not hesitate to provide any speech to the world community regarding local political issues but nobody feels about the reaction of these type of speech.

In this digital era, before planning to journey for tourism, at first, respective tourist would like to know about tourism spots through various internet search engine but no existence or do not show or showing in the last page of our tourism spots or country name in the internet search engine. These are happening due to lack of effective promotion or expertise of our respective department for tourism. Also, this is one of the effective barriers to attract foreign tourist in Bangladesh. In spite of many weakness of tourist spots in Bangladesh, expenses are very high than others considering facilities. Respective Department of Bangladesh should become active to eliminate bad perception about Bangladesh as well as promote Bangladesh in the world community & take necessary steps to solve existing problems in the tourist spots so that tourists can enjoy to visit Bangladesh.

আমার এ লেখাটি গত অক্টোবর ২০, ২০১৭ খ্রিঃ তারিখে The Daily Observer পত্রিকায় প্রকাশিত।