The prospects and importance of 'Tourism' in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is full of natural beauty. Rivers, coasts and beaches, archaeological sites, religious places, hills, forests, waterfalls, tea gardens surround it. The Sundarban, Historic Mosque in city of Bagerhat, Ruins of the Buddihist Vihara at Paharpur are the three world heritage sites in Bangladesh among 1007. To observe the beauty of nature, huge amount of domestic and foreign tourists visit the country and its tourist attraction sites. In 2012, around six-lakh (6 hundred thousand) tourists came Bangladesh to visit and enjoy its beauty. The total contribution of tourism to GDP was 4.4%, 3.8% to employment and 1.5% to investment in 2013. Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) looks after the tourism sector in Bangladesh under the ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism. Due to some limitations, Bangladesh has failed to introduce itself as a tourist destination country. The paper tries to focus on the attractive tourist spots of Bangladesh and the contribution of tourism in the Bangladesh economy. The major concern of the writer is to highlight the factors by which Bangladesh can be one of the major tourist attractive country in the world in near future.

Tourism in Bangladesh is a slowly developing foreign currency earner. The country has much to attract international and domestic tourists.

Bangladesh's tourist attractions include archaeological sites, historical mosques and monuments, resorts, beaches, picnic spots, forests and tribal people, wildlife of various species. Bangladesh offers ample opportunities to tourists for angling, water skiing, river cruising, hiking, rowing yachting, sea bathing as well as bringing one in close touch with pristine nature. Lonely Planet ranked Bangladesh as the best value destination for the year 2011 .

In the northern part, comprising the Rajshahi division, there are archaeological sites, including the temple city Puthia in Rajshahi; the largest and most ancient archaeological site, Mahasthangarh in Bogra; the single largest Buddhist monastery, Paharpur in Naogaon; the most ornamental terracota Hindu temple in Bangladesh Kantaji Temple, and many Rajbaris or palaces of old zamindars. In the south-western part, mainly the Khulna Division, there is the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest of the world with Royal Bengal Tiger and spotted deer. The historically and architecturally important sixty domed mosque in Bagerhat is a notable site.

In the south-eastern part, which is the Chittagong division, there are natural and hilly areas like Chittagong Hill Tracts, along with sandy sea beaches. The most notable beach, in Cox's Bazaar, is a contender for the title of longest unbroken sandy sea beach in the world.

In the north-eastern part, Sylhet division, there is a green carpet of tea plants on small hillocks. Natural reserved forests are great attractions. Migratory birds in winter, particularly in the haor areas, are also very attractive in this area.

In 2004, the US Department of State estimated the daily cost of staying in Dhaka at $191. Also a brief recommendation of my rationalization findings has been presented for further consideration of tourism industry perspective. I hope my effort will be highly appreciated by the service industry in Bangladesh

Nature of tourism
Tourism is a service industry. It has become a very complex activity encompassing a wide range of relationships. Resulting in the improvements in standard of living and disposable income with more leisure time, the overall numbers of tourists are expected to grow further. Factors like convenient transport, no restrictions on travel, availability of information on various tourist spots and new marketing techniques contributed the growth of overall number of tourists in the present world. Additionally, a number of socio-demographic factors such as higher educational standards, advancement in information technology, rapid urbanization have strongly influenced the growth of tourism.

Importance of tourism
Tourism is an important driver of economic growth. Besides this, People have an opportunity to exchange culture. Tourism can earn huge amount of foreign currency. Tourism can support the Balance of Payment (BOP) of a country. Tourism can create employment.

Impact of tourism
Tourism can bring many economic, social and environmental benefits, particularly in rural areas and developing countries, yet mass tourism is also associated with negative effects. Tourism can only be sustainable if it is carefully managed so that probable negative effects on the host community and the environment are not permitted to outweigh the financial benefits.

There are economic, socio-cultural and environmental key benefits of tourism.

• Economic benefit: Tourism can provide direct jobs to the community, such as tour guides and hotel housekeeping. Indirect employment is generated through other industries like agriculture, food production and retail. Infrastructure development and visitors' expenditure generates income for the local community and can lead to the alleviation of poverty.
• Social benefit: In addition to the revenue, tourism can bring about a real sense of pride and identity to communities. It allows them to look at their history, and community identity. This helps the local residents to maintain their tradition and culture.
• Environmental benefit: Tourism provides financial support for the conservation of ecosystems and natural resource management, making the destination more authentic and desirable to visitors.

Negative effects of tourism are also not ignorable. These are:

• Negative economic effect: Jobs created by tourism are often seasonal and poorly paid, yet tourism can push up local property prices and the cost of goods and services. Place of tourism can be affected by terrorism.
• Negative social effect: Visitor's behavior can have a detrimental effect on the quality of life of the host community. For example, crowding and congestion, drugs and alcohol problems can occur. Interaction with tourists can also lead to an erosion of traditional cultures and values.
• Negative environmental effect: Tourism poses a threat to a region's culture and natural resources, through overuse.