Tourism and MDG
Photo: Noor Alam / driknews
To achieve the MDG, tourism in many countries of Africa and Asia has gradually been getting a momentum as an effective tool for poverty alleviation. Tourism industry of Bangladesh also needs to be developed for generating jobs and reducing poverty in and around the tourism spots. Tourism creates many informal jobs for unskilled and illiterate women. At present about 4 lacs people are directly involved and about 9 lacs are indirectly involved in tourism industry of Bangladesh. This number can be increased by developing rural tourism, riverine tourism, and community tourism. This will help achieve the MDG target- 'halve the poverty margin by 2015'. Special focus should be given in involving women in the tourism industry which will enhance their bargaining capacity. It is also necessary to follow the code of conducts set by the UNWTO in 2002 at all the tourism destinations of Bangladesh. The code of conducts advocates for elimination of child abuses and forceful prostitution in tourism industry. Tourism activists should be aware of the preservation and conservation of environment, culture as well as archaeological and natural tourism resources. In Bangladesh tourism industry should move cautiously so that it will be able to benefit a wide range of people in urban and rural areas. The sense of ownership of community people for protecting tourism resources, their active involvement in tourism planning process and project formulations are to be emphasized. There should be a planned, controlled and well-balanced tourism development in the country that we still lack.
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