Report: A study on tourism industry of Bangladesh

Report: A study on tourism industry of Bangladesh

The objectives of the study have emerged from the research problems identified earlier. The main thrust of this study has concentrated on the issues relevant to the development of tourism industry in Bangladesh. However, the details of the objectives of this study are summarizing the nature and categories of tourist attractions in Bangladesh, presenting the tourist facilities available in the country, evaluating the role of some tourism organizations operating in the country, measuring the performance of world tourism sector as well as the performance of Bangladesh tourism industry, measuring the satisfaction of visiting tourists on of different tourism services available in Bangladesh, identifying the constraints to the development of tourism and prescribe necessary suggestions for reforms and improvements of the tourism industry in Bangladesh and forecasting and highlight the potentials of tourism development in the country.

1.1. Preamble Tourism is one of the initiators of people's movement, a facilitator for exchange of knowledge, a provider of pleasure, a way to enjoy leisure, and a means to enrich culture. There was a time when only the elite classes had the time and money to enjoy travelling. Especially before fifties of the twentieth century, travel was the privilege of a few rich, affluent, and perhaps adventurous people. Things have since changed much. "Today, the rise in the standard of living of people in several developed and developing countries along with the fast technological revolution in transport industry has brought overseas holiday within the reach of middle and even working class. Besides, the emergence of cheap holiday through non-scheduled carriers has brought about a major revolution in the concept of holiday package. (Naik, 1977)". Thus, the concept of tourism has now acquired a wider significance among the mass people.

People are prone to fun and enjoyment. Being curious, they always want to get the flavour of unseen and unknown for pleasure. Their inherent attraction for the enjoyment of natural beauty and diverse civilization motivate them to discoveries and inventions through extensive travelling. They also intend to gather new experience from new things and new places, get lasting pleasure, and know different unknown cultures through visiting destinations. Besides, tourism is a leisure activity to relief oneself from the stress of daily routine-life. People get depressed of their monotonous workloads and want to escape from the pressures of work-deadlines, avoid

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crowd city life, break traditional daily life, and thus enjoy some time in a new place having natural and cultural significance. A new place can relieve the monotony of one's existence and -fijl one mind with joy (Haq 2001). For this a large number of people is now moving from one place to another, from one country to other countries, from one end of the world to another, and may be in future, from one planet to other ones (Hossain, 1999). Thus tourism and the resultant movement of people are booming globally.

Today, the tourism industry is recognized as the single largest industry in the world. As such tourism has become the largest trade sector in the world and this sector has been recognized as a major thrust area of economic and business activities in most of the destination countries. It has shown a tremendous growth during the past four decades. For most of the destination countries, tourism has become an emerging sector. They are now earning larger portion of their national income from tourism. For this, many destination countries have developed necessary tourism-infrastructure and arranged necessary facilities to fed the tourists and thus reap the potential benefit from tourism activities. Their utmost efforts are yet on to attract increased number of tourists.

The impact of modern technology and the resultant introduction of speedy and comparatively cheap air transport have made it possible for the tourism industry to

1.2. The Research Problem

By today, tourism has become the largest industry and trade sector in the world generating enough employment opportunities and earning huge amount of foreign exchange for the destination countries. It has created multifaceted impact on people's pleasure, knowledge, overall standard of living, and culture of both the destination and tourist generating countries. Many of the destination countries have marched forward to reap the full potentials of this industry. But Bangladesh is lagging far behind in the growth and development of its tourism industry. Through the country has got many rare attractions substantially different from those of other destination countries, its tourism industry is yet at the primitive stage and has not taken the shape of an industry.

The government of Bangladesh, however, has already taken some measures for the development of this industry. But many of those are of very primary nature and have created little impact on the growth and development of this industry. Therefore, it is necessary to uncover the reasons of the backwardness of this industry and identify the loopholes of the

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present policy measures and thus suggest effective courses of actions to be undertaken by the government and other concerned agencies.

1.3. Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study have emerged from the research problems identified earlier. The main thrust of this study has concentrated on the issues relevant to the development of tourism industry in Bangladesh. However, the details of the objectives of this study are as under:

i) To summarize the nature and categories of tourist attractions in Bangladesh;

ii) To present the tourist facilities available in the country;

iii) To evaluate the role of some tourism organizations operating in the country;

iv) To measure the performance of world tourism sector as well as the performance of

Bangladesh tourism industry;

v) To measure the satisfaction of visiting tourists on of different tourism services available in

Bangladesh;

vi) To identify the constraints to the development of tourism and prescribe necessary

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Suggestions for reforms and improvements of the tourism industry in Bangladesh; and

vii) To forecast and highlight the potentials of tourism development in the country.

1.4. Literature Review

A substantial number of works on tourism as a subject has been done throughout the world. But a relatively few works and literatures on the development of tourism worldwide have been found as yet. Similarly, enough literatures on the same area of tourism industry in Bangladesh are not available. However, a few articles and research reports addressing the marketing issues and dealing with the problems of the tourism industry in a skin-deep manner have been available to the researcher. As a consequence, literatures reviewed for this study include only a handful of papers and the few research reports. These are summarized as under:

1.5. The Research Gap

The literatures reviewed earlier section clearly indicates that there has been a considerable expansion of tourism activities worldwide. It is understood that a relatively little attention has been given by the professionals and researchers to the issues of tourism development. Therefore, the study on the development of tourism industry has been largely unexplored. As such, literatures on tourism development throughout the world are not enough.

Bangladesh tourism industry, being at its infant stage, is of no exception from this. No comprehensive literature covering the same area has yet been available to the present researchers. Researchers in Bangladesh also do not seem to have much attention to the studies on the development of tourism industry. Therefore, no comprehensive and worthy paper, research monograph, or research report on this issue of tourism industry in Bangladesh has yet come out. The very few literatures available in Bangladesh have tired to suggest the ways and means in the present context of the country for the development of the industry. These existing literatures on Bangladesh tourism are also with inadequate justification and skin-deep analysis. Therefore, these offer little help in developing a framework for further studies by the researchers. As a result, Bangladesh tourism industry has failed to attract a sizeable number of foreign tourists, motivate them to stay longer, obtain better performance of the industry, and thus ensure sustained growth and development of the industry.

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1.6. Justification of the Study

Through the country has bright prospects to develop a strong tourism industry based on natural, cultural, ecological and historical attractions it is yet aoristically undiscovered and unexplored. Therefore, the concerned authority should identify the reasons for the backwardness of such a potential sector and take appropriate measures to overcome the problems faced by the industry. For this a comprehensive study like the present one seems to be the right attempt in the present context.

According to Gilbert (Undated: 164), research is an important aid to feedback and decision making. Its importance lies on the knowing of the relevant facts, formulating strategies on the basis of those facts, and bringing about success in the operation of the industry concerned. In the case of the tourism industry in Bangladesh, these decisions include the identification of the problems faced by the industry and taking necessary corrective measures to direct the industry towards its growth and development.

As Bangladesh tourism lags behind in its growth and development and in attracting a significant number of tourists to visit its destinations, the situation therefore calls for the identification of the causes and formulation of policy and strategy measures. The findings. of the present study may be of immense help in these contexts. As there has been no major study covering this area, it is expected that this study will provide sufficient information on the tourism in Bangladesh, Besides, policy makers, service providers, and academicians will also be benefited from a study like this. Furthermore, having tourism sector of Bangladesh much potential this area lends itself to a systematic and structured study. Finally as an emerging research area, this study will provide additional knowledge and literature to the existing ones, and generate interest or thinking for further research on other issues of the tourism industry in Bangladesh.

Research Methods

This chapter describes the research methods followed in this study. The research methods to follow depend on the problems identified, objectives set and propositions/ hypothesis drawn for the study. However, the details of research methods followed in solving the research problem, achieving the objectives, and assessing the research propositions have been described below. With these ends in view, this chapter has covered the contents such as nature of the study,

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scope of the study, theoretical propositions, population, sample size, sample selection procedure, and questionnaire preparation. This chapter has also presented sections on pilot survey for questionnaire pre-test, field survey and investigation for primary data collection, sources of secondary data, verification of filled in questionnaires, tabulation, data analysis and interpretation techniques, organizational framework of the report, and limitations of the study.

2.1. Nature of the Study

(In the present study it has not been able to accumulate enough secondary information as there is very little by way of literatures. As such, it has not been possible to draw any precise hypothesis regarding the problem under study. Since existing research on the development of the tourism industry in Bangladesh is not adequate, the nature of this study has to be exploratory rather than testing any hypothesis. An exploratory study aims to gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it, often conducted to formulate a more research problem or to develop hypothesis/(Seltiz and Cook, 1962) By definition, an exploratory research involves investigation of problems on which little formal knowledge is available (Rahman, 1997). Being the nature of this study an exploratory one and using descriptive statistical tools rather than inferential statistical ones, the present study is both a theoretical as well as an empirical one.

2.2. Scope of the Study

The scope of the study extends to the following aspects:

A. Coverage of the Study: (The study has attempted to cover eight main areas. These include the study of (i) nature. and categories of tourist attractions in Bangladesh; (ii) tourism facilities in Bangladesh; (iii) tourism organizations in Bangladesh; (iv) tourism performance; (v) tourists' satisfaction on Bangladesh tourism arrangements; (vi) constraints to the development of tourism industry in Bangladesh; (vii) suggestions for reforms and improvements; and (viii) potentials of tourism development in Bangladesh. The study has attempted both micro and macro level analyses. At the micro level, activities of different tourism firms operating in the country have been analyzed. In the macro level analyses, the overall performance of the industry has been measured.

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B. Survey Area Coverage: The overall tourism attractions and facilities available in the country have been considered and the whole of Bangladesh is the survey area of this study. In the case of measurement of tourists' satisfaction, tourists visiting any part of the country have been considered to include in the sample.

C. Study Period: The field survey has been conducted and the field level data have been collected during the months from November to February, which are the peak tourism seasons in Bangladesh. Data collected for this study have been tabulated during the month of March 2005. The preparation of the report, editing, and finalizing touch have been done during the period from August' 05 March' 06. Finally, the report has been typed during the month of April 2006.

D. Samples Included: The research problem along with its objectives and propositions indicate that data should be collected from those firms and parties who are directly or indirectly involved in the business activities of Bangladesh tourism industry, development process of tourism infrastructure or facilities in the country, and interaction process of rendering or receiving tourism services. As such, the scope of different categories of samples taken for this study is limited to the following:

i. Tourism Firms: Six types of tourism firms have been examined in this study. These include BPC, Private Tour operators, Airlines, Travel Agencies, Hotels, and Restaurants. These firms are the major role players in the development and business activities of the tourism industry! Hotels and restaurants have been studied as they play important roles to serve tourist guests and in adopting tour operators' services, and thus accelerating the development of tourism activities in Bangladesh.

ii. Tourists: The study has included the domestic tourists. It has also chosen the foreign tourists visiting Bangladesh and foreign residents who have visited different destinations of the country. It has basically confined itself to the study of tourists' perceptions on different service arrangements of the tourism industry;..irt Bangladesh.

iii. Experts: Academicians, professional guides, travel and tourism writers, retired executives of different tourism firms have also been considered and included in the sample. They have been interviewed for opinion and judgment based information.

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3. Theoretical Propositions or Research Questions of the Study

It has already been mentioned that enough research-based literatures on the present area of the tourism industry in Bangladesh are not available. Therefore/it has not been possible to draw any precise hypothesis regarding the problem under study. Nevertheless, on the basis of the survey of available literatures and expert opinion, the researchers have attempted to draw some theoretical propositions and have verified/ evaluated those in light of the analysis of findings. These broad propositions are related to the key issues of the research problem and have been developed to achieve the objectives of the study. These propositions along with the scope of the study have defined the extent and coverage of the study and guided the researchers in choosing necessary data to be collected. Finally, the researchers have put forwarded those propositions for policy and managerial implications. However, the propositions drawn for this study include the following:

A. Bangladesh tourism industry has not been able to provide necessary tourism infrastructure and facilities for tourists.

B. Adequate number of tourism is not available in the country and the existing firms are not yet fully equipped with necessary manpower, technology and facilities.

C. The overall performance of the tourism industry in Bangladesh is poor.

D. The measures undertaken by the government are modest in nature and much need to be done for the development of the industry. E. Bangladesh can expect to become an important visiting destination by adopting effective and practical strategies in the context of the findings of this study.

2.4. Population

Eight categories of population have been set based on the objectives and scope of the study.

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These are (i) executives of the BPC, (ii) owners of private tour operators (TOAB members), (Hi) tourists visiting the country, (iv) executives of the airlines, (v) owners of travel agencies, (vi) hotel receptionists, (vii) restaurants managers, and (viii) experts! J The first category consists of currently employed executives of the BPC. An up to date TOAB (Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh) members' list consisting of names and addresses of 32 firms has been used as the base of population for the second category. Foreign tourists visiting Bangladesh during the months from November to February constitute the population for the tourist group. The size and composition of population for the tourist category is not precisely known and their proper categorization could not be made. The above mentioned three categories of population have been considered for questionnaire survey. The last five categories of population have been used for informal conversations. Since no up to date list of travel agencies, hotels, and restaurants operating in Bangladesh has been found, the sizes of population for these three sectors remain unknown. The expert category of population includes academicians, travel writers, professional guides, and ex-executives of tourism firms.

2.5. Sample Size

The foremost and important step of primary data collection is the selection of sample from which data to collect. One of the important criteria of this selection is to include those tour operators who have at least five years' professional experience of dealing tours and tourists. It is mentioned earlier that the study has considered eight categories of samples. Four top executives (three directors and one general manager) of four separate divisions and 'the chairman of the BPC has constituted the sample for the first category of respondents. A total number of ten private tour operators have been taken in the sample of the second category of respondents. In an attempt to gauge the perceptions/attitudes of tourists, a total number of 250 (125 domestic and 125 foreign)'tourists have been selected in the sample of this category. Necessary information has been collected from them to obtaining feedback on some selected issues of the tourism arrangements in Bangladesh. Besides, eight sales executives of Biman Bangladesh Airlines and two sales executive of GMG airline have constituted the sample for this category. For the retailers' category of respondents, a total number of twenty-five travel agencies have constituted the sample for this category. In addition, receptionists of twenty five different hotels and managers of another twenty five restaurants have been included in the samples of these two categories. Finally, ten tourism experts (2 academicians, 3 travel and tourism writers, 2 professional guides, and 3 ex-executives of tourism firms) have also been considered to collect their opinion through informal conversations. The following table shows different categories of samples and their respective sizes:

It should be mentioned that out of 125 respondent foreign tourists, 12 are from India, 10 are from each of the USA, the UK, Japan and South Korea, 9 are from China, 6 are from each of Netherlands, Pakistan and Malaysia, and the rest 46 are from other source countries. Out of the

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250 respondent-tourists, about 73% are male and 27% are female. Their ages range from 20 to 70 years. As found in the study, the larger segments of the respondent tourist fall in the age intervals 20-29, 30-39, 40-49,........, and 50-59.

2.6. Sample Selection Procedure

To assess the potentials of tourism development in Bangladesh, top executives of different tourism firms have been included in the samples. Because these people are relatively more experienced and directly or indirectly involved in providing tourism services and other tourism related activities in Bangladesh. More specifically, chairman, three directors from three separate divisions and one general manager from administration division have been selected from the BPC for the purpose of interviews. Since the sample of this category has included the chairman, the head of the organization, and other four top executives of four divisions of the BPC they have been thought to be suitable and competent to provide necessary and available information relevant to the purpose of the study.

For the tour operators' category of sample, attempt has been made to draw ten firms from the TOAB members' list through an unbiased lottery. For selecting the sample respondents from thirty two tour operators, each has been given a number like 1, 2, 3,.....,31, and 32,, serially. These numbers have been written on 32 separate small pieces of white papers of the same size. Ten pieces of such papers have then been drawn through an unbiased lottery. The sample thus drawn has included seven tour operators from Dhaka, two from Chittagong, and the rest one from Sylhet.

Questionnaire Preparation: Three different sets of questionnaires have been prepared to conduct the field survey. All these questionnaires have sought information concerning the following issues:

(a). Nature and categories of tourist attractions in Bangladesh.

(b). Tourism facilities in Bangladesh.

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(c). Role of different tourism firms in the development of tourism in Bangladesh.

(d). Performance of tourism sectors both worldwide and in Bangladesh and evaluation of present market size of Bangladesh tourism industry in the context of world-tourism market.

(e). Tourists' satisfaction on Bangladesh tourism arrangements.

(f). Constraints to the development of tourism industry in Bangladesh.

(g). Suggestions concerning policy and managerial implications for the development of tourism industry in Bangladesh,

(h). Potentials of tourism development in general in Bangladesh.

The questionnaire developed for the foreign tourists consists of 16 tourism-service related issues on which the respondent tourists have been asked to document their response on different dimensions of seven-point rating scale. These objective questions have attempted to collect objective data like the extent of foreign tourists' positive and negative attitudes on different tourism arrangements/services in Bangladesh. The questionnaire for the respondent tourists used-a-seven-point Likert type Scale ranging from 1 to7 to obtaining and rating their opinion on different tourism arrangements in Bangladesh. The main reason to use this Likert Scale is that it is relatively easier to understand. Besides, the criteria used include attempts to assess the extents or degrees associated with the issues of the questions. For example, if the respondents are asked: "Do You Think the Prices set by the Tour Operators in Bangladesh are Reasonable? The respondents will either say either Yes or No. Initially, the possible answers to be given by an individual respondent are one-dimensional and must be mutually exclusive. If the answer is 'Yes' or 'No', then the next question attempts to seek answer on the seven-point rating scale having seven break-ups of dimensions. For a total number of seven dimensions three for positive, three for negative and the remaining one for neutral has been set to measure the extent of attitudes of the tourists. The above mentioned tourism-service related issues along with their dimensions and their given values are as follows:

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For the very nature of the information and also of the study, some "what, why and/or how-type" questions have been developed and posed in many cases to collect attitudinal, behavioural, value-judgement and opinion related information. As such, insight understanding of the researcher has to be used very carefully to explore the extent of information required for the concerned issue(s) of each question.

Expert opinions have been taken to improve all three sets of questionnaires designed initially. Their opinions have also been utilized to identify the key problems and solve those problems of the industry efficiently and effectively, and to measure the potentials of the sector under study. No formal questionnaire or interview schedule has been used to collect information from the respondents of airlines, travel agencies, hotel receptionists and managers of restaurants.

All three sets of questionnaires have emphasized the underlying issues to identify the constraints to the tourism development in Bangladesh and prescribe the policy and managerial implications for improvement. These questionnaires especially attempted to highlight the potentials of tourism sector in general. Besides, careful attempt has been made to cover all the relevant issues and thus make the questionnaire comprehensive.

Survey for Questionnaire Pre-test

Questionnaires have been developed independently by the researchers. Before launching the field survey, three-fold pilot surveys have been conducted to pre-test the questionnaires, modify the questions set, and thus finalize them. The main purposes of these pilot surveys have been to test the availability of data, examine the practicability of the questions, and understand about the topics to cover for such comprehensive and exhaustive interviews. Another purpose of the pilot survey is to be acquainted with the relevant technical aspects on the subject matter of the study. Thus these pilot surveys and pre-tests have served the purposes of improving the questionnaires.

In the pilot survey academicians, research experts and some selected respondents have been requested to express their opinion and give necessary suggestions in connection with finalizing the questionnaires. In the first phase, the questionnaires developed earlier by the researchers have been passed on to a few senior colleagues of the faculty of Business, Studies, and University of Dhaka. They provided some valuable suggestions to make those questionnaires simple and unambiguous so that respondents can easily understand the questions set there. In the second phase of pilot survey, the researchers took the opportunity to" discuss with some

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research experts and make the remaining corrections. Thereafter, the pilot survey has been conducted among some respondents. This phase of pilot survey included preliminary discussions and interviews with BPC executives, tour operators, and some tourists. In light of the experience gained by the pilot survey, all three sets of questionnaires have been suitably amended.

2.9. Survey and Investigation for Primary Data Collection

Data pertaining to the potentials of tourism development in Bangladesh have been collected from the five key persons engaged with BPC and ten randomly selected tour operators through in-depth personal interview with pre-designed questionnaires. In order to understand the impressions of the tourists, an in-depth face-to-face interview with 125 domestic tourists has been conducted. Another exit interview with another 125 foreign tourists has also been conducted at different hotel lounges and at the exit point of the departure lounge of Zia International Airport (ZIA). In the interview, respondents have answered some unstructured questions on their own and rated some other structured questions focused by the seven points on the Likert Scale discussed earlier.

Five MBA students of Dhaka University have been recruited as field-workers to visit the respondents' firms, offices, airport departure lounge or residential hotels, and to make all kinds of investigations for primary data collection. A one-day orientation program has been conducted for the field-workers to brief them adequately about the topics of the study and issues of the questionnaires, and thus to teach them about the techniques to adopt in the interview process. Special attention has been given to introduce the field workers with different issues of the subject matter of the study.

Some respondent executives/owners of tourism firms have taken time to provide answers and return the field in questionnaires. Besides, the process of identifying tourist respondents from different countries, occupations, ages, sexes has taken time and thus a total of three months have been spent to complete the field survey.

2.10. Sources of Secondary Data

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The research agenda made it necessary to review the available literatures and documents. It should again be mentioned again that enough secondary data have not been found due to unavailability of such data. Whatever limited secondary data could be made available those have been incorporated effectively, logically and carefully in this study. For this, some relevant literatures on tourism in general have been collected from different newspapers, magazines, journals, periodicals, internets, and research reports. Souvenirs, brochures, travel handbooks, leaflet, and folders of different tour operators have also been found useful. Other published and unpublished materials of both the government and non-government agencies have also provided some required information. Thereafter, necessary desk research on the available literatures has been conducted and proper adjustments made in light of the purposes of this study. Through the desk research, the collected information have been reviewed extensively to assimilate ideas for the research work, synthesize necessary concepts for the theoretical framework and justify logic of the researcher's comments. A thorough review of literature has enabled the researchers to obtaining a coherent picture of the problem considered in this study. Thus, theoretical propositions have been drawn and documented carefully to comply with the requirements of the study. An attempt has been made to provide enough logical interpretations throughout the report. Relevant descriptive exerts have also been used to provide the literature base, justify the arguments and prepare the theoretical framework of the report.

Thus, attempt has been made to collect sufficient primary and secondary data from all the above mentioned sources to define the research problem, develop a theoretical base, raise necessary arguments, justify logic, identify the constraints to the development of the tourism industry in Bangladesh, draw effective policy and managerial implications for it, and highlight potentials of tourism development in Bangladesh.

2.11. Verification of Filled in Questionnaires and Tabulation of Data

The researchers themselves have monitored, overseen and supervised the data collection activities of the field-workers. The field-workers submitted everyday the filled in questionnaires and reported about the progress and problems of data collection. Thereafter, the researchers have verified the questionnaires field in by the respondents and submitted by the field-workers to make sure about the consistency of data and completeness of the questionnaires. In the case of any problem, inconsistency of data, and/or any other anomaly, attempt has been made to contact with the respondents again to review those data or solve the problem or remove anomaly and thus make necessary corrections immediately. In some problem cases, the researchers themselves visited the sample firm to handle the situation and review the information.

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After careful verification of the filled in questionnaires and necessary corrections over there, ^a trained personnel has tabulated the collected information under the direct supervision of the researchers. The tabulation has been done manually but with utmost care and sincerity. Thus, the chances of errors or mistakes are expected to be minimal. Thereafter, the tabulated data were summarized and arranged under suitable classification and analyzed according to the objectives set earlier.

2.12. Data Analysis and Interpretation

There is no standard technique of data analysis for qualitative researchers, though the quantitative researchers have different standard statistical tools like standard deviation, correlation/regression analysis, factor analysis, multi-variant analysis, etc (Islam and Hossain, 2000). Therefore, Islam and Hossain blamed this qualitative research as problematic. Besides, the nature of the problem, the type of the research, and the purposes of the study adhered to this specific case have made it impractical to use any advanced statistical tool. Of course, Miles and Huberman (1984) have suggested three stages of data analysis for qualitative research such as data reduction, data display, and drawing and verifying conclusions (In Islam and Hossain, 2000). As such, the researchers in their present research have applied this approach to a greater extent.

It has been mentioned earlier that the study has attempted both subjective and objective measurements. A combined approach of both quantitative and qualitative techniques has been appropriate to analyze and interpret the findings and draw conclusion in light of the research problem and objectives. Thus, some descriptive statistical tools have been used according to the requirements and suitability of the analyses of collected data. These mainly include percentage, simple growth rate, mean, and standard deviation. Graphical analyses of some time series data could be done for necessary interpretation but have been avoided as these do not add anything meaningful. The analyses also include judgements and thoughtful comments of the researchers.

Potentials of tourism development in Bangladesh have been presented theoretically on the basis of responses given by the respondents and also on the basis of comments and arguments available in different secondary literatures. Performance of tourism industry in Bangladesh has been measured in light of foreign currency earned from, employment generated by, and growth achieved in this sector. Presentation of simple mean-scores, ' calculated on the basis of responses made by the respondent tourists on a seven-point Likert Scale, also reflects the performances as well as tourists' satisfaction on different tourism service-arrangements in Bangladesh. Here, the nature of questions has been structured and the responses on the scale

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associated with the questions have been valued as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 in order to convert the qualitative responses into quantitative forms. Thus the questionnaire designed for the respondent tourists incorporated objective questions each consisting of seven dimensions,. The perception scores obtained on these objective issues have been totalled first. The total value/score thus derived from each of such questions has then been averaged to find the mean value/score of the issue under consideration and indicate the extent of tourists' satisfaction on an average on each issue separately. Thus, these mean scores have been presented to indicate the extent of tourists' satisfaction on that particular tourism-service in Bangladesh. Side by side, the overall mean perception-score has also been calculated to indicate the overall satisfaction of the tourists on the totality of tourism arrangements in Bangladesh. In some of the cases, data have been analyzed and interpreted through the use of conventional statistical tools like percentage, simple growth rate, and standard deviation. The standard deviation of the mean scores on different tourism issues in Bangladesh has been calculated to show the range of differences among them and thus indicate whether they are meaningful in a sense that they are within the acceptable limit or narrow range.

2.13. Organizational Framework of the Research Report

The write-up of this research report has been organized in ten different chapters. Logical sequence has been maintained in framing and organizing the report. The first chapter starts with presentation of the introductory discussion. With this end, the chapter broadly includes preamble, the research problem, and objectives of the study, literature review, the research gap, and justification of the study.

The purpose of the second chapter is to describe the research methods of the study. To this end, the content of this chapter includes the nature of the study, scope of the study, theoretical propositions of the study, population, sample size, sample selection procedure, questionnaire preparation, pilot survey, field survey and investigation for primary data collection, sources of secondary data, verification of filled in questionnaire and tabulation of data, data analysis and interpretation, organizational framework of the research report, and limitations of the study.

Chapter three discusses the nature and categories of tourist attractions in Bangladesh. Chapter four presents tourism facilities in Bangladesh and chapter five evaluates the role of different tourism organizations operating in Bangladesh. Chapter six attempts to measure the performance of world tourism industry as well as tourism industry in Bangladesh. This has been done in terms of tourist arrivals, earnings from tourism, and employment generation. Chapter seven measures tourists' satisfaction on different tourism service-arrangements in Bangladesh. Chapter eight points out some constraints to the development of tourism industry and chapter

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nine prescribes necessary suggestions for policy and managerial implications. Chapter ten forecasts and highlights the potentials of tourism development in Bangladesh. Finally, chapter eleven evaluates the propositions, presents implications, concludes with remarks, and depicts the scope for further research.

2.14 Limitations of the Study

In every research project, research outcome may face some limitations. The present project is of no exception from this. As such, the researchers feel that this study has also few limitations. Of course, the researchers have always been sincere to keep the limitations at minimal. In spite of all sincere efforts, the researchers could not control some limitations which the study may contain finally.

The first and foremost among the limitations of this study could be the related with the samples selected for the study. The researchers feel that it would be better and representative if the size of samples, especially in the case of foreign tourists, could be relatively larger. The present study has investigated only a total number of 250 tourists mainly due to resource constraints. Only 250 respondent tourists out of the total inflow of about two lacs foreign tourists every year and another five lacs domestic tourists may or may not represent the total impressions of the tourists visiting different destinations in Bangladesh. Besides, perceptions or opinions of some purposely-selected tourists have been considered in this study. The findings based on these selected tourists only may, therefore, limit to the generalization. However, the careful and cautious considerations of secondary information and descriptive statements available in literatures have given some insights to generalize the findings. Nevertheless, since the study has considered a small number of tourists, the conclusion with regard to the visiting behaviours, preferences of tourists, and satisfaction on Bangladesh tourism arrangements could not be thought concrete. Besides, the researcher could not include some tourism firms locating outside Dhaka city in the samples and collect information from them, though tourism firms are also (travel agencies, hotels and restaurants) operating throughout the country. Thus, the study is also subject to location biases and market-biases with regard to samples selected.

The second limitation is that some sample respondents have been found so conservative to respond and provide some necessary information Respondent tourists have not agreed with some issues incorporated in the questionnaire and not answered those issues under the questions. As such, it has not been possible to fully evaluate all the issues relevant to tourism development in Bangladesh and thus measure the entire potentials of this industry. In the case of suggestions relating to government policy measures, some of them avoided answering those questions on silly grounds. Of course, the validity and the reliability of information collected for

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this study may not pose any confusion and the authenticity of the findings may not be subject to any question.

The third limitation is the non-availability of literature on Bangladesh tourism. This has limited the researchers to develop any comprehensive insights into the problem under consideration and thus draw any precise hypothesis and test it accordingly.

The fourth limitation is related with the assessment of contribution made by the tourism sector in the economy of Bangladesh. The foreign currency income alone does not reflect the real income of the country from tourism sector, No concrete calculation procedure is there to assess the actual income from tourism sector in Bangladesh. Besides, there are some hidden expenditure of tourists and some income of different tourism firms that are not properly documented and could not be taken into account. Moreover, the income of hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, private airline, and private tour operators could not be collected and shown due to their unwillingness to provide such data. Further, all these incomes have multiplier effect on the overall economy of the country. Thus the no documentation and no availability of data have led the researcher to reflect or present a part of the total contribution of the tourism sector on the economy in Bangladesh.

The fifth is with regard to the amount of fund available for conducting such an industry-based detail study. The personal source has allocated the required amount both for conducting the study and publication of the report. The fund provided from personal source could not be enough for the required amount. Still, the researchers should acknowledge that time constraint has been another loop in completing such a vigorous research work. Therefore, on this ground of time cons the findings of this study could be discounted at least to some extent.

Tourism is sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non residents, in so far as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity 1 .

Union of official Travel Organizations (IUOTO) in 1937 and is still widely accepted by the nations^. According to IUOTO, "The term 'tourist' shall in principle be interpreted to mean any person travelling for a period of 24 hours or more in a country other than in which he usually resides".

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1.6. Objectives of this study:

The present study on tourism problems and prospects in Bangladesh is mainly a descriptive research. The main objectives of this study were to conjoin the theoretical aspects of tourism to the prevailing tourism environment of Bangladesh, analysis of tourism inventory of Bangladesh, market and marketing strategies analyses and putting forward some pragmatic suggestions and policy recommendations.

For this purpose we have analysed first the factors that determine the demand for tourism and then we have described what we have in our tourist product .inventory that may attract the tourists to visit our country.

1. 7. Methodology of the study:

For collecting information on various aspects of Bangladesh tourism we had to depend on the secondary sources of data and information. For this purpose we went through the publications of the following organizations:

(1) Bangladesh Purgation Corporation (BPC).

(2) Association of travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB).

(3) Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

(4) UNDP

(5) UNESCO

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(6) WTO

Besides, we interviewed the key personnels of the BPC, ATAB, Hotel Sonargaon, Hotel Sheraton.

In addition, we interviewed 50 foreign tourists, 10 Chinese restaurants and 10 travel agency owners, few tourism experts and other people who somehow were related to tourism. The respondents had been selected purposively.

Tourism in Bangladesh:

A General Overview

2.1: In the course of history, this part of Indian subcontinent had always attracted the foreigners; some times as invaders and sometimes as tourists.

Bengal had always been a good destination for the international tourists. But with passage of time Bengal has lost its attraction as a major tourist destination and at present we could be placed no where in the list of major tourist importing countries of the world.

2.2. The National Tourist Organization of Bangladesh:

Before liberation of Bangladesh i. e. during the then Pakistan time, there was a Department of Tourism at the centre (West Pakistan) which was responsible for promotional and regulatory works for the development of tourism. But the task of creation of tourist facilities was left with the private sector except for some areas where private investment was inadequate or nil.

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Accordingly, Bangladesh Parjaton Corporation (BPC) was set up under the Presidential order No 143 November 27, 1972 for the "purpose of promotion, better operation and development of tourism in Bangladesh.

6. Development Plans of BPC:

Development of tourism potential of Bangladesh requires a long term plan and an investment of high magnitude. As a part of its activities for promotion and development of tourism in Bangladesh, BPC has undertaken a few developmental plans within the framework of country's national plans.

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