Tourism- a developing sector
Tourism has experienced continuous growth and diversification to become one of the largest and fastest growing economic sectors in the world over the past few decades. Bangladesh is a country with the fewest arrivals and the lowest revenue earned from tourism industry. There is no doubt that tourism is an effective development tool, especially in rural areas of the developing world. It helps the economy as revenue is generated. Tourism promotes better cross culture understanding.
Development of sustainable tourism has always been a big challenge. UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) defines sustainable tourism as “Tourism that meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future.” The Planning Commission prepared the PRSP entitled "Steps towards Change: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction-II" for the financial year 2009-11 which included “Development of Tourism” in the section 4.3.7. It said, “The main goal of the tourism sector is to develop tourism for providing accessible, comfortable and safe tourism services to people, both local and foreign.”
The government will have to be the main driving force in developing tourism in Bangladesh.
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