Tourism
Prof. Dr. Md. Wasiul Islam :
Tourism industry is based on wide range of tourist/visitor related business venture activities permitted within the national rules and regulations. Hospitality and leisure industries are also considered as tourism industry. However, entrepreneurship plays roles as the engine of tourism industry which is known as one of the fastest growing economy in the world.
A ‘tourism entrepreneur’ may be defined as a person or a group of persons producing and managing tourism products and services by launching an enterprise through the professional application of knowledge, skills, competencies of monetizing a tourism related innovative idea. In this process the entrepreneur must have the commonly prescribed entrepreneurial traits (like persistent, responsible, inquisitive, goal oriented, committed, competitive, innovative, enthusiastic, deal with stress, risk taking, independent, self-demanding, self-confident, leadership, among many others) along with service sector specialties.
Tourism entrepreneurship deals with the legal activities of the major group of stakeholders of this service sector primarily designed for the effective and profitable interaction of demand and supply of tourism products and services while assuring competitive professionalism and standard socio-economic condition. The success of these enterprises often depend on the leadership of a vibrant and innovative entrepreneur professional who can take various risks having the courage to try new solutions to emerging challenges like unsustainable supply chains, outdated business practices, financial crisis, and so on.
Tourism can facilitate the development of an entrepreneurship. Moreover, tourism is a labour-intensive smoke-free industry which is capable to create significant number of new jobs through generating numerous business opportunities. Therefore, the participation of the local population in tourism industry contributes to the balanced development of both the industry and nation.
Tourism entrepreneurship can offer everything (composition of products and services) starting from planning a tour to post-tour. Some of the examples of tourism entrepreneurship in the context of Bangladesh are transportation (bullock/cow carts, (auto) rikshaws, van, other motor vehicles); accommodation (e.g., homestays, tree house, mud house, boat house, boutique, heritage, etc.); catering (area specific gastronomy tourism);enjoying natural, cultural and heritagebeauty; entertainments; experiences including adventure, nature-based, community-based, and other types of tourism; and other service facilities like shopping, banking, guiding, escorting, security, tour operators, travel agents, magazines, among many others.
Any entrepreneur can be involved in any one or some of these above-mentioned tourism enterprises focusing their locality whether it an urban or rural or in between. Considering the potential tourism resources of Bangladesh in traditional and potential tourism destinations, there are immense potentials of various types of tourism especially nature-based tourism (ecotourism/green tourism/community-based tourism), cultural tourism, business tourism, water tourism, education tourism, sports tourism among others.
Moreover, other specific types of tourism like pro-poor tourism, coastal and maritime tourism (blue tourism), medical and well-being tourism, rural tourism, culinary tourism, agro and fruits-based tourism, adventure tourism, ethnic tourism, religious tourism, are potential in Bangladesh. It requires proper planning and its implementation with effective monitoring and evaluation by the involvement of multi-stakeholder including the local communities.
Most of the tourist destinations of Bangladesh are located in the rural areas. A variety of Bangladeshi lifestyles are experienced in these rural areas where around 63% of total population live with the treasure of craft, performing arts and rich traditional norms and values. Therefore, there is a good potential of rural tourism.
Rural tourism entrepreneurship needs to be focused in Bangladesh due to facilitate the use of local resources (both human and non-human), create additional scopes of employment for rural manpower, achieve a better standard of living and improved income sources, explore the possibilities of forward and backward linkages through vertical and horizontal integration of manpower, preserve and maintain the traditional culture and value system, and awareness building on biodiversity conservation.
Potential areas for rural tourism, cultural tourism, adventure tourism, ethnic tourism, religious tourism i.e. Shat Gumbuj Mosque, Khan Jahan Ali Shrine, Panam Nagar, Mainamati Bihar, Paharpur Bihar, Mohastangar Bihar, Sona Masjid, Kantajir Temple, Kusumba Mosque, Golden Temple, the Sundarbans; tribal of Chottogram Hill Tracts, Sylhet, and North Bengal; forests, tea and rubber gardens, sea, rivers, haors, baors, mountains, barind tracts; folk dances; various festival events in the rural areas among many others to mention here. The North Bengal is known as fruit zone particularly popular for mangoes, litchi, and jackfruits during the summer. Therefore, tourism sites are spread out almost all over the country.
There are four distinct types of entrepreneurial organizations: small businesses, scalable start-ups, large companies, and social entrepreneurs. Beside traditional business entrepreneurship there are opportunities of the application of social entrepreneurship (new and creative approach) in tourism. Tourism social entrepreneurship (TSE) is known as a market-based approach to address various social challenges (such as inequality, illiteracy, environmental pollution, health issues, etc.) by maximising the benefits to local communities and minimising the negative impacts and externalities through tourism entrepreneurship.
TSE promotes tourism related businesses through local people participation to create social goods and services (profits) to provide aids and opportunities to disadvantaged community population (people).Therefore, TSE can reduce not only individual inequality but also social inequalities to improve the living standards of the local people (social capital) by reinvesting the profits and creating more job opportunities in tourism-based social enterprises.
Entrepreneurship is the cause of growing an economy which is a significant change agent in social and economic development within a society. Tourism entrepreneurship relates with developing tourism in an area. Tourism industry is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises where entrepreneurship is even more important to the development of this industry. Tourism entrepreneurs require the innovations, knowledge, capacity, value-driven leadership, and tools to ensure the sustainability of this entrepreneurship. Proper management of tourism entrepreneurship can serve us significant benefits to facilitate empowered and dignified local community as well to exalt the positive image of Bangladesh in the outer world.
Tourism industry is based on wide range of tourist/visitor related business venture activities permitted within the national rules and regulations. Hospitality and leisure industries are also considered as tourism industry. However, entrepreneurship plays roles as the engine of tourism industry which is known as one of the fastest growing economy in the world.
A ‘tourism entrepreneur’ may be defined as a person or a group of persons producing and managing tourism products and services by launching an enterprise through the professional application of knowledge, skills, competencies of monetizing a tourism related innovative idea. In this process the entrepreneur must have the commonly prescribed entrepreneurial traits (like persistent, responsible, inquisitive, goal oriented, committed, competitive, innovative, enthusiastic, deal with stress, risk taking, independent, self-demanding, self-confident, leadership, among many others) along with service sector specialties.
Tourism entrepreneurship deals with the legal activities of the major group of stakeholders of this service sector primarily designed for the effective and profitable interaction of demand and supply of tourism products and services while assuring competitive professionalism and standard socio-economic condition. The success of these enterprises often depend on the leadership of a vibrant and innovative entrepreneur professional who can take various risks having the courage to try new solutions to emerging challenges like unsustainable supply chains, outdated business practices, financial crisis, and so on.
Tourism can facilitate the development of an entrepreneurship. Moreover, tourism is a labour-intensive smoke-free industry which is capable to create significant number of new jobs through generating numerous business opportunities. Therefore, the participation of the local population in tourism industry contributes to the balanced development of both the industry and nation.
Tourism entrepreneurship can offer everything (composition of products and services) starting from planning a tour to post-tour. Some of the examples of tourism entrepreneurship in the context of Bangladesh are transportation (bullock/cow carts, (auto) rikshaws, van, other motor vehicles); accommodation (e.g., homestays, tree house, mud house, boat house, boutique, heritage, etc.); catering (area specific gastronomy tourism);enjoying natural, cultural and heritagebeauty; entertainments; experiences including adventure, nature-based, community-based, and other types of tourism; and other service facilities like shopping, banking, guiding, escorting, security, tour operators, travel agents, magazines, among many others.
Any entrepreneur can be involved in any one or some of these above-mentioned tourism enterprises focusing their locality whether it an urban or rural or in between. Considering the potential tourism resources of Bangladesh in traditional and potential tourism destinations, there are immense potentials of various types of tourism especially nature-based tourism (ecotourism/green tourism/community-based tourism), cultural tourism, business tourism, water tourism, education tourism, sports tourism among others.
Moreover, other specific types of tourism like pro-poor tourism, coastal and maritime tourism (blue tourism), medical and well-being tourism, rural tourism, culinary tourism, agro and fruits-based tourism, adventure tourism, ethnic tourism, religious tourism, are potential in Bangladesh. It requires proper planning and its implementation with effective monitoring and evaluation by the involvement of multi-stakeholder including the local communities.
Most of the tourist destinations of Bangladesh are located in the rural areas. A variety of Bangladeshi lifestyles are experienced in these rural areas where around 63% of total population live with the treasure of craft, performing arts and rich traditional norms and values. Therefore, there is a good potential of rural tourism.
Rural tourism entrepreneurship needs to be focused in Bangladesh due to facilitate the use of local resources (both human and non-human), create additional scopes of employment for rural manpower, achieve a better standard of living and improved income sources, explore the possibilities of forward and backward linkages through vertical and horizontal integration of manpower, preserve and maintain the traditional culture and value system, and awareness building on biodiversity conservation.
Potential areas for rural tourism, cultural tourism, adventure tourism, ethnic tourism, religious tourism i.e. Shat Gumbuj Mosque, Khan Jahan Ali Shrine, Panam Nagar, Mainamati Bihar, Paharpur Bihar, Mohastangar Bihar, Sona Masjid, Kantajir Temple, Kusumba Mosque, Golden Temple, the Sundarbans; tribal of Chottogram Hill Tracts, Sylhet, and North Bengal; forests, tea and rubber gardens, sea, rivers, haors, baors, mountains, barind tracts; folk dances; various festival events in the rural areas among many others to mention here. The North Bengal is known as fruit zone particularly popular for mangoes, litchi, and jackfruits during the summer. Therefore, tourism sites are spread out almost all over the country.
There are four distinct types of entrepreneurial organizations: small businesses, scalable start-ups, large companies, and social entrepreneurs. Beside traditional business entrepreneurship there are opportunities of the application of social entrepreneurship (new and creative approach) in tourism. Tourism social entrepreneurship (TSE) is known as a market-based approach to address various social challenges (such as inequality, illiteracy, environmental pollution, health issues, etc.) by maximising the benefits to local communities and minimising the negative impacts and externalities through tourism entrepreneurship.
TSE promotes tourism related businesses through local people participation to create social goods and services (profits) to provide aids and opportunities to disadvantaged community population (people).Therefore, TSE can reduce not only individual inequality but also social inequalities to improve the living standards of the local people (social capital) by reinvesting the profits and creating more job opportunities in tourism-based social enterprises.
Entrepreneurship is the cause of growing an economy which is a significant change agent in social and economic development within a society. Tourism entrepreneurship relates with developing tourism in an area. Tourism industry is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises where entrepreneurship is even more important to the development of this industry. Tourism entrepreneurs require the innovations, knowledge, capacity, value-driven leadership, and tools to ensure the sustainability of this entrepreneurship. Proper management of tourism entrepreneurship can serve us significant benefits to facilitate empowered and dignified local community as well to exalt the positive image of Bangladesh in the outer world.
(Dr. Islam is Professor, Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline, Khulna University.
E-mail: wislam@fwt.ku.ac.bd)
