Tourism Marketing in Bangladesh: Issues, Strategies and Challenges

Abstract

The tourism sector of Bangladesh is perceived as very potential from the very beginning. The policymakers, concerned authorities, and other active stakeholders frequently express such opinions on different occasions. But the achievements in the last four decades do not indicate the same. Undoubtedly many factors are responsible for such slow progress. In that case, ‘Tourism marketing’ has been identified (by some studies) as one of the significant players. The researcher was fascinated to understand the marketing issues, strategies, and challenges of the tourism sector of Bangladesh. The objectives of the study were to portray the current scenario of the tourism marketing issues (elements) in Bangladesh; to gain more insights of tourist behavior in Bangladesh; to be acquainted with the competitiveness of Bangladesh as a tourism destination; and to figure out the challenges of marketing the tourism sector of Bangladesh. It was an exploratory study in nature. Both the primary and secondary data have been used. For primary data, a survey has been conducted on 390 respondents based on a structured questionnaire. The respondents were tourists and visitors of four leading tourism spots of Bangladesh. Besides, to collect qualitative data 28 active stakeholders have been interviewed from the concerned industries. To analyze the quantitative data different statistical and mathematical tools have been used. For qualitative data, a content analysis method has been used. Related secondary materials have been incorporated where appropriate.