The main purpose of this report is to analyze the
current position and future prospects of Bangladesh tourism industry and to
highlight how the administration of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation and its
promotion activities can play the role in the tourism development of a country
like Bangladesh. Considering this view, the promotional activities undertaken
by the tour operators of Bangladesh Bangladesh Bangladesh
To promote the tourism of any destination one needs to launch the promotional activities through e.g. international media like cable TV, world renowned newspapers, magazines and other world coverage media. Due to resource constraint, the country can not use the international media. As a result, the country has to depend on the local media to advertise the same which is not effective measure for attracting foreign tourists.
To promote the tourism of any destination one needs to launch the promotional activities through e.g. international media like cable TV, world renowned newspapers, magazines and other world coverage media. Due to resource constraint, the country can not use the international media. As a result, the country has to depend on the local media to advertise the same which is not effective measure for attracting foreign tourists.
The country
also suffers from the image problem and the international media most often
highlight the country in a negative way which causes potential visitors not to select
Bangladesh as a tourist destination. The real situation is different. To
overcome this negative image, international media coverage in a positive way
can play an important role. As it is now the country does not have enough
funds, it cannot launch effective promotional steps in correcting the same. The
government initiative in this regard is also insufficient. All these cause the
country to attracting insignificant number of tourists and resultant effect is
the failure of earning sufficient amount of foreign currency. Therefore, the initiatives concern authority of the government along
with the tourism authority is a must for correcting the image of the country to
the potential tourists in order to draw their attention and grow interest to
choose Bangladesh as a tourist destination and visit the same. The participation of the private sector in the same
industry is not also at expected levels and even most of the private tour
operators are new in this area. They also have the resource constraint to play
the active role for the development of the industry. The effective steps to
encourage the private sector investment from the local as well as from the
foreign investors can contribute to develop the industry.
Abstract
This report is an attempt to investigate how the use
of administrative structure of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation and promotional
activities can help to develop the tourism industry by giving a special
concentration to the case of Bangladesh. The
7investigation
was conducted from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. The contribution of the same industry to the
world economy is considerable. Many countries are now dependent on this sector
for foreign currency earnings. Every destination country is trying to achieve
more gain by developing this industry. The expansion of the tourism throughout
the world has increased competition among the tourist destinations, trying to
attract more tourists by adopting appropriate marketing techniques and
strategies. Failure of doing so by a particular marketer will lead to a less
competitive in the world tourism market.
As an important element of marketing mix, promotion
plays the vital role in marketing any product and service. Tourism
product/service is of no exception. Because of the tourists want to know in
advance about the attractions and the facilities of a particular destination.
The tourist also wants to know other related information of his/her visit to
make the same safe, secured and enjoyable. As a result, dissemination of
information on travel and tourism-related products and services are highly important. By using the different tools of
promotion, marketers attempt to serve this purpose and try to influence the
potential tourists’ attitudes in favour of the sponsor’s destination and grow
interest to visit the same.
Though promotion plays an important role in tourism
marketing, the tourism marketing in Bangladesh Bangladesh
Diversified and they are located at the different
parts of the world. In addition to that the low quality of promotional
materials, improper distribution of the materials, the perceived negative image
by the potential tourists due to a wrongful and negative reporting from
international media adversely affect the tourism of Bangladesh
The research also revealed that the country has a
positive trend in arrivals and earnings and it can be increased to a significant
level if the country can undertake appropriate promotion measures by increasing
the allocation for this purpose. The country also needs to employ creative
people for this purpose and the quality of the promotional materials also needs
to be developed. The promotional activities should also be directed in
correcting the present image towards Bangladesh
Chapter-1
ADMINISTRATIVE
FUNCTIONS OF BPC
1.1Chairman:
a. To have
overall supervision and control over administrative, commercial and financial
affairs of the corporation.
b. To
provide the meeting of the board of directors of the corporation.
c. To
maintain liaison with government and other agencies in the country and also
abroad.
d. To guide
and advise the board and other officers of the corporation in connection with
formulation and exception of plan and program me for the promotion and
development of tourism industry in Bangladesh .
e. To
determine training requirement of for the officials of bpc and creation of
opportunities through different
related government and
international agencies.,
f. To
evaluate accomplishment and standardization of various commercial and
promotional activities of the corporation.
G .As the
executive head of the corporation ,he is to ensure discipline and smooth
functioning of the corporation.
h. To act as
the principal accounts officer of the corporation.
i. Any other
duties as assigned by the authority from time to time.
1.2
Director (commercial works, planning and
training)
A. As one of
the members of board of directors, helps the board in formulating policies,
supervises commercial operation of projects excluding duty free shop.
B. to
provide suggestions, responsible for smooth and successful operation of
commercial activities except financial and personal administration, and maintains
liaison with govt. and other related agencies for development and expansion of
commercial functioning of the corporation
c. To direct
guide, undertake and supervise all sales promotion and publicity through all
media all at home and abroad.
d. To
formulate policy regarding operation of accommodation, catering and transport
port units and tours and ensure their implementation through managers (commercial)
in the head office.
e. To maintain liaison with wholesale
and retail tour operators, travel agents, travel writers Bangladesh mission
abroad regarding organization of group tours.
Formulate
policies, programmes in respect of development of plans pertaining to the
concerned officers engaged in performing the project preformed (p.p), Annual
development programme, short term and long term plan etc.
g. To have
overall control over training activities of tourism training institute and to advise and guide to the tourism training
institute in connection with various training courses and their standardizing.
h. To give
guidance and suggestion to works division in connection with preparation of
tender schedule, tender notices etc. For various civil, electrical and
mechanical works of the corporation.
i. To
supervise and control all sorts of construction works of corporation .passing
of legal bills in caser of operational matters.
j. Any other
duties assigned from time to time.
K . To
supervise regulatory work relating to hotel and restaurant and also for
promotional work for the growth of tourism.
1.3 . DIRECTOR (FINANCE):
a. To frame
and implement financial policies of the corporation, to supervise and control
of finance and accounts, purchase division and duty free shop project.
b. To be
responsible for overall financial discipline and economy.
c. To operate
corporations funds.
D .To frame and
adopt accounting policies and procedures.
e. To
supervise the system of verification and reconciliation of earnings from
different projects.
F .Running
the accounting system on commercial pattern.
g. To
initiate cost benefits studies.
h. supervise
and guide the system and procedures .
I. To
explain financial aspects of development schemes of the corporation.
j. To endeavor
and to keep corporations funds supplied with adequate cash resources.
K .To prepare
budgets and undertake enforcement of budgetary control.
L .to
supervise local purchase for head office and projects.
m. To
arrange for importation of duty free shop.
n. To look after
the maintenances of central store.
o. To
undertake the overall supervision, administration of duty frees shop.
p. To look
into framing o9f policies and procedure for duty free shop operation.
q. maintenance
of liason with customers, ministry of commerce, national board of revenue,
chief controller of imports and exports, Bangladesh bank in connection with
duty free shop.
r. To
control foreign exchange fund of duty free shop.
T .Any other
duties over time to time.
1.4 SECRETARY:
a. To look
after the administration of the corporation.
b. To deal with
establishment cases-appiontment, promotion, regulation/confirmation of
appointment/fixation of seniority, preservation of Annual confidential reports
of all officers and staffs.
C .To
circulate all sorts of regulations and clarify there upon. To deal with all sorts of disciplinary matters, preparation of charge-sheets,
conducting departmental proceedings.
D .To deal
with legal matters and court cases and labor union matters. Examining and
passing of legal bills, installation of
telephone etc.
e. To deal
with agreement with rental matters etc.
f .To
undertake maintenance of office stationary and equipment lifting and fixture.
g. To
undertake maintenance of transport fleet of transport pool and its repair.
h. To deal
with important correspondence on policy matters with the ministry and the other
organizations.
i. To respect
the corporation in the government/agencies and maintenance of liaison with
allied government.
j. Any other
assignment given by the chairman/board.
1.5 Deputy Secretary (personal,
administration and common service):
a. To
supervise officer under him to respect of personal, administration and common
service matters and assist the secretary in routine works of the corporation.
He is assisted by assistant secretary in his day to day operation.
b. any other
functions as and when assigned by the authority
1.6 Assistant Secretary (personal):
a. To deal
with establishment cases of the officers and staff of the headquarters.
b. To deal
all case of government clearance for appointment/ promotion to all classes of
employees of the corporation, regularization of the promotion/ appointment
cases/ maintenance of guard file, confirmation/ bonus/ advance other C.P.F/
national pay commission/ rules and regulation clarification/ confidential cases
if any, of all classes of employees’ of the corporation.
c. To deal
with labor union matters/ demands/ liaison with the labor directorate.
d. Issuance
of order related to foreign and local training/ foreign employment/ visit to
foreign countries/ training institute scholarship/ coordination with heads of
the divisions/ re designation of the post in case assigned cases.
1.7. Assistant
Secretary (common service):
a. To deal
with accommodation/ rent/ taxes/ telephones and its installation, repair and
maintenance agreement with renal matters.
b. To work
after maintenance of typewriter/ duplicating machines, Transport etc. and emergency
purchase of any item.
c. To deal
with uniform and liveries of the head quarter/ agreement with periodical and
newspaper/ auction and hire.
d. To look after the general
cleanliness of the office premises/maintenance of the office building.
e. any other
duty as assigned by the authority from time to time.
1.8 Assistant secretary
(administration):
a. To deal
with office administration/ general supervision/ office hours/ holidays etc.
b. To deal
with receipt and dispatch/ records/ typing tool/ maintenance of C.L. register
of both officer and secretariat.
c. To deal
with establishment cases of assistant executive officers/ assistant commercial
officer ant the staff of the project only.
d. To deal
with legal matters and court cases in accordance with job assigned and passing
of legal bills.
a. To be
responsible for preparing of budget and control over expenditure. Finalization
of the final account of the corporation. Passing of bills, operation of banks,
interpretation of rules regarding financial advice, administration of the
division.
b. Any other assignment by nthe authority or
chairman.
Chapter
-2
2.1 Law and board
GOVERNMENT
OF THE PEOPLE ' S REPUBLIC OF BANGLADESH
MINISTRY OF
LAW AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS
(LAW DIVISION)
President's Order No, 143 of 1972
THE BANGLADESH PARJATAN
CORPORATION ORDER, 1972
Whereas it is expedient to provide for the establishment of a
corporation for the purpose of promotion, better operation and development of
tourism in Bangladesh and for matters connected, therewith or ancillary
thereto: -
NOW, THEREFORE, in
pursuance of the Proclamation of Independence of Bangladesh, read with the
Provisional Constitution of Bangladesh Order, 1972, and in exercise of all
powers enabling him in that behalf, the President is pleased to make the
following order: -
1. (1) This order may be
called the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation Order, 1972.
(2)
It extends to the whole of Bangladesh.
(3)It shall come into force at once.
2. In this Order, unless there is anything repugnant in the
subject or context, -
(a) "Board" means the Board of Directors of
the Corporation;
(b) "Chairman" means Chairman of the Board;
(c) "Corporation" means the Bangladesh
Parjatan, Corporation established by this Order;
(d) "Director" means a Director of the Corporation;
(e) “domestic tourism” means any person of Bangladesh
traveling within the country for the purpose of recreation or education or
health;
(f) “Government” means Government of the peoples Republic of
Bangladesh;
(g) “Prescribed” means prescribed by rules or regulations made
under this order;
(h) "tourist" means any person traveling for
more than twenty-four hours’ but less than six months in a country other than
that of his normal residence but shall not include a person arriving to take up
an office, occupation or engagement for gain.
3. (1) On the coming into force of this Order, there shall be
established a Corporation to be called the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation for
carrying out the purposes of this Order.
(2) The Corporation shall be a body corporate, having
perpetual succession and a common seal with power, subject to-the provisions of
this Order, to acquire, hold and dispose of property, both movable and
immovable and shall by the said name sue and be sued.
4. (1) The Head office of the corporation shall be at Dacca,
(2) The Corporation may establish office, branches or
agencies at any other place in or outside Bangladesh.
5. (1) It shall be the function of the Corporation to promote and
develop tourism, provide facilities, undertake measures and carry out all forms
of activities connected with or ancillary to tourism.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the
foregoing provision, the Corporation shall in particular have power: - 1
(a) to promote tourist
undertakings and to tourist installations and services;
(b) to project the image of Bangladesh abroad for the
purpose of attracting tourist by publicizing history, and culture of the
country;
(c) to organize reception
and information facilities or outside Bangladesh;
(d) to encourage and develop domestic tourism;
(e) to promote any organization, in or outside
Bangladesh, for the purpose of engaging in any activity falling within the
functions of the Corporation, or, with the provisions approval of the
environment, to associate with any such organization;
(f) to enter into tourism
agreement with foreign countries with the previous approval of the Government.
(g) to conduct and carry
out research on various aspects of tourism;
(h) to publish literature on tourism;
(i) to acquire, establish, construct; arrange, provide, and
run hotels, restaurants, rest houses, picnic spots, camping sites, theatres,
amusement parks, casinos and facilities for water skiing and entertainment for
tourist;
(j) to establish Travel
Agency and/or work as agents’ for railways, shipping companies, airlines,
waterways, road transport, for organizing group tours; •
(k) to organize shikar agencies and undertake all
activities for promotion of Safari tourism and maintain game sanctiia-. ries
and game reserves, fish hatcheries and fowl breeding farms;
(1) to establish institutes or make other arrangements
for instruction and training of persons engaged or likely to be engaged in any
activity connected, with or ancillary, to tourism;
(m) to acquire, hold or
dispose of any property whether movable or immovable;
(n) to invest its moneys
and funds and to vary the investments as and when it may seem necessary or
proper;
(o) to do all other things
connected with or ancillary to any of the matters referred to in the forgoing
sub clauses;
(p) to carry out any other
functions as may be prescribed.
6. (1) The authorized
capital of the Corporation shall be taka 1 crore, to be subscribed by the
Government, in the manner determined by the Government according to the
requirements of the Corporation.
(2)
The initial share capital shall be Taka five. lakhs fully paid up and
subscribed by the Government.
(3)
Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (1), the Corporation may, for
carrying on all or any of its functions have separate capital raised by loan or
the Government may approve grant from, or in such manner as.
7. (1) Subject to the
flues and regulations made under this Order, the general direction and
administration of the affairs and business of the Corporations shall vest in a
Board of Directors which may exercise all powers and do all acts and things
which may be exercised or done by the Corporation.
(2) The Board, in discharging its functions, shall act on
commercial considerations having due regard to the public interest generally
and shall be guided on question of policy involving national
2
interest by such general or special
instructions as may be given to it by the Government from time to time.
8. (1) The Board shall consist of a
Chairman and not less than two and not more than four whole time Directors to
be appointed by the Government.
(2)
No act or proceeding of the Board shall be invalid morely on the ground. of
existence of any vacancy in, or any defect in the constitution of, the Board.
9. (1) The, Chairman and the other
Directors shall be appointed by the Government for such period and. on such
terms and conditions as may be determined.
(2) The Chairman and the Director of
the Board shall be whole time officers of the Corporation and shall exercise
functions and discharge such duties as may -be prescribed.
10. No person shall be or shall
continue to be a Director who,
(a) is or at any
time has been adjudicated insolvent;
(b) is found to
be a lunatic or of unsound mind;
(c) is or at any time has been convicted of any offence which, in
the opinion of the Government, is an offence involving moral turpitude;
(d) is a minor;
or
(e) absents himself from three consecutive meetings of the Board
without leave of absence granted by the Chairman, or, in the case of the
Chairman, by the Government.
11. (1) The meetings of the Board
shall be held at such times and at such place as may be proscribed:
Provided that
until rules are made in that behalf such meetings of the Board shall be
convened by the Chairman.
(2)
To constitute a quorum at a meeting of the Board the Chairman and at least one
Director shall be present.
(3)
At a meeting of the Board each Director shall have one vote, and in the event
of quality of, votes the Chairman shall have a second or casting vote.
(4) If for any reason the Chairman is unable to be present at a
meeting of the Board, a Director authorized in writing by the Chairman shall
preside at the meeting.
12. The Board may, delegate such powers as it may doom fit to the
Chairman for the efficient functioning of the Corporation.
13.
There Shall be an Advisory Committee, to be known as the Parjatan Updesta
Committee, to perform such advisory functions as may be prescribed, consistence
of not less than three and not more than seven persons to be appointed by the
Government from among persons who by virtue of their knowledge mid experience
can render valuable advice regarding the promotion and development of tourism.
14.
The Corporation may open and operate any account with any scheduled Bank or
banks.
15.
The Corporation may invest its funds in such securities of the Government or in
such manner as may be prescribed.
16. (1) The Corporation hall maintain proper
accounts and shall prepare annual statement of accounts, including the profit
and account and balance sheet, in accordance with such general directions as
may be issued, and in such form as may be prescribed, by the Government.
(2) The accounts of the Corporation, shall 'be audited by not less
than two auditors, being chartered accountants within the meaning of the
Chartered accountants
Ordinance,
1961 (Ordinance X of 1961), who shall be appointed by the Government.
(3) Every auditor appointed under clause (2) shall be given a copy
of the annual balance sheet and other accounts of the Corporation together with
the account books and vouchers relating thereto for examination and shall, at
all reasonable times, have access to accounts and other document o of the
Corporation and may in connection with such. Accounts examine any Director or
officer of the Corporation.
(4) The auditors shall report to the Government upon the annual
balance sheet and the accounts and on any ancillary matter connected therewith.
(5)
The Government, at any time, may issue directions to the auditors requiring
them to report to it upon the adequacy of measure taken the Corporation for the
protection of the interests of the Government or upon the sufficiency of their
procedure in auditing the affairs of the Corporation and may, at any time,
enlarge or extend the scope of the audit or direct that different procedure in
audit shall be adopted or that any other examination shall be made by the auditors
or any other persons 'if, in its opinion, the interest of the Government so
requires.
17.
(1) The Corporation shall furnish to the Government such returns, reports and
statements as the Government may form time to time require.
(2)
The Corporation shall, as soon as possible after the end of every financial
year, furnish to the Government statement of "accounts audited under
Article 16 together, with an annual report on the conduct of its affairs for
that year and on its proposal for the next financial year. `
(3) The copies of the audited accounts and annual report
received by the Government under clause (2) shall be published in the official
Gazette and shall be laid before the Legislature.
18. The Corporation shall, be such
date in each year as may be prescribed by rules, submit to the Government for
approval a statement, in the prescribed form, for each financial year showing
the estimated receipt and expenditure and the sums which are likely to be
required from the Government during the financial year.
19. The Corporation may, subject to any rules
or regulations made or directives issued by the Government, appoint such
officers,
Consultants;
advisers and employees L" it considers necessary for the efficient
performance of its functions on such terms and conditions as it may determine.
20.
Notwitltstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in
force, or in any memorandum or articles of association, deed or other
instrument, on the commencement of this Order -
(a) All assets of the Pakistan Tourism
Development Corporation Limited (hereinafter referred, to as the said company)
in Bangladesh shall stand transferred to, and vested in, the Corporation.
Explanation.-
The expression "assets" includes all rights, powers, Authorities and
privileges, all property, movable and immovable, including lands, buildings,
cash balances, bank deposits, reserve funds, investments and all other rights
and interests in, or arising out of, such property and all books of accounts,
registers, records and all other documents of whatever nature relating thereto;
(b) all debts and liabilities
incurred, all obligations undertaken, all contracts entered into and all
agreements made in Bangladesh by or with the said company shall, unless the
Government otherwise, directs, stand transferred to, and be deemed to have boon
incurred, undertaken, entered into or made by or with, the Corporation;
c) all suits or other legal
proceedings instituted by or against the said company in Bangladesh before the
commencement of this Order shall, unless the Government otherwise directs,, be
deemed to have been instituted by or against the Corporation and be continued
proceeded with accordingly;
(d) all officers and others employees
of the said company in Bangladesh shall stand transferred to the Corporation on
such terms ands conditions as the corporation may determine:
Provided
that an; officer or other employee so transferred shall have the option not to
continue La the service of the Corporation.
21. The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette
make rules for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of this Order.
22. (1) The Board may with the previous
approval of the Government r4’ platoons, not inconsistent with the provisions
of this Order and the rules prescribed by the Government, to provide for all
matters for which provision is necessary or expedient.
(2) All
regulations under clause (1) shall be published in. the Official Gazette and
shall come into force on such publicator.
.
Chapter-3
3.1 Introduction
Tourism is one of the fastest growing
and single largest industries in the world. The contribution of tourism
industry in the global as well as individual perspective is really amazing.
Many countries in the world depend upon tourism as a main source of foreign
exchange earnings. According to the World Tourist Organization (WTO), while
448.5 million tourists moved throughout the world during the year 1991 (Quoted
by Davidson, 1994) , about 593 million tourist arrivals were recorded during
1996 registering a 4.6% increase over 1995 (Bhattacharya, 1997) and 32.22 percent growth in five years. The
World Tourism Organization recorded a total number of 763 million international
tourist traffics in 2004 which is 10.58% higher than previous year and earned
US$ 623.00 billion which shows an increase of 18.89% over 2003 (WTO,
2005). Tourism continues to surge as a
world economic force, contributing nearly $5.5 trillion to the world’s economy
in 2004 (Wagner, 2005). The increasing
trend of tourist arrivals and earnings is continuing. In 2005, the world
tourist arrivals rose to 808 million. The World Tourism 2020 Vision forecasted
that this figure will be 1,006.4 million in 2010 and the same will reach to
1,561.1 million in 2020. This continued growth in tourism business throughout
the world is encouraging and nations are becoming more concern to attract more
tourists to their own destinations and trying to promoting this sector as a
major source for the economic development of the nation.
Bangladesh is of no exception from
this. The country is trying from the inception of this industry to attracting
more tourists to its destinations and to earn more foreign currency from this
sector. The statistics on this sector shows that both the arrivals and earnings
from tourism in Bangladesh have increased over the past. Statistically it may reflect
an impressive profile but in a true sense the picture is somewhat different. In
terms of global increasing trend in both the number of tourist arrivals and the
earnings from tourism, the same in Bangladesh is very insignificant. Even in
consideration of the positions of the neighboring countries, Bangladesh is far
behind in this respect. In 2004 about 271,270 foreign tourists visited
Bangladesh during the year and the country earned about To . 3967.56 million
(US$ 66.82 million) from this sector
in the same year (BPC, 2005). Though
tourism industry, administration and its market have grown phenomenally
worldwide, the industry and its market have not grown in Bangladesh. Lack of
proper/sufficient promotion is one of the major reasons not for developing the
industry in Bangladesh up to the mark. Because, potential tourists need to know
properly about the attractions, services, facilities, etc. at the destinations
and accessibility to there through various forms of promotional measures.
Besides, the expansion of tourism business and the increased competition among
destination countries throughout the world have necessitated developing
appropriate promotional approaches by the tourism firms worldwide.
Marketing promotion includes all
means of conveying the message about a product or service to potential
customers by using publicity or sales campaign or TV commercial or free gift
etc (Ivanovo and Collin, 1996). Promotion
is regarded as one sub-category of the marketing mix elements. According to
Kotler et al (1999) promotion consists of those activities which are used to
communicate the products or services and its merits to target customers and
persuade them to buy. One of the tools of marketing promotion is sales
promotion which consists of short-term incentives to encourage sales of a
product or service through samples, coupons, rebates, premiums, allowances,
price-offs, contests, push money, trade promotion, exhibits, premiums, sales
rallies etc. Sales promotion refers to a vast range of novelty items that can
carry promotional messages or a visual representation of the products or
services. It includes in-store promotions such as two-for-the-price-of-one, 10
percent off, free gifts, redeemable coupons, competitions or money-back for
returning so many bottle-tops or labels (Hackle, 2005). Sales promotion can be used to dramatize the
offers of BPC. Researcher will specifically look for advertising, sales
promotion, public relation and publicity, personal selling and or direct
marketing including direct sales for the promotion of this industry. As
Bangladesh tourism appears to have suffered mostly due to inadequate and
ineffective promotional activities and promotional activities play an important
role in the marketing of the same, it is necessary to study how promotion can
play the role in tourism industry in Bangladesh (Hossain & Hossain,
2002). Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation
(BPC), the only public sector tour operator in Bangladesh spent Tk. 7.935
million in 1995-96 which rose to TK. 10.413 in 2004-05 for promotional activity
which is only 0.71% and 0.23% of its earning respectively. On the other hand
the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) generates a return-on-investment of $4
for every dollar spent promoting Virginia's tourism and for every one dollar
spent in advertising returns almost four dollars in taxes to Virginia (Tourism
in Virginia, 2002-2003). According to
the latest Longwoods International report Colorado Travel Year 2003, more than
3.8 million people visited Colorado in 2003 as a direct result of the state’s
tourism promotion, resulting in a $65.5 million boost in state and local taxes
and without aggressive tourism promotion, the additional revenue would not have
been realized (Tourism and Advertising, undated).
In the face of stiff competition
among the destination countries, effective promotional measures are essential
for the development of the industry. Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation or Bangladesh
tourism could not meet this requirement due to lack of needed fund along with
the absence of decision-makers’ foresightedness. As a result, this sector and
its market have failed to grow properly not merely because it lacks enough
attractions and facilities. But time has not yet past over. Still there are
lots of scopes and opportunities if Bangladesh attempts to highlight it as a
tourist destination to the potential tourists properly through an effective
promotional measure and can take some initiatives to develop some
infrastructural facilities, the country would be able to earn many times higher
than the present by attracting more tourists within a short time. Considering
the time factor and limitation of other resources, only the promotional aspects
has been considered for the present study and it will be attempted to examine
the existing promotional approaches of both the public and private sector tour
operators, identify the problems and the limitations of their promotional
activities, and prescribe necessary policy measures for effective promotional
actions for the industry in Bangladesh.
3.2 Importance of the Study
Tourism is the fastest growing and single
largest industry in the world. Tourism as a multi-faced industry is playing
pivotal role in the global as well as in the individual economic perspective.
In the year 1950, the international tourist arrivals were 25.2 (Hossain and
Firozzaman, 2003) which rose to more
than 800 million in the year 2005 and in 1950, the world tourism earning was
US$ 2.1 billion and the same stood at US$ 623 in 2004 (WTO, 2005). The World Tourism Organization forecasted
that in the year of 2010, the total world tourist arrivals will be 1,006.4
million and it will increase to 1,561.1 million in 2020 and the figure of the
same for South Asia will be 10.6 million and 18.8 million in the year of 2010
and 2020 respectively and at the same time WTO forecasted that the number of
tourist arrivals in Indian Ocean destinations will be 91.544 million and
179.249 in the year 2010 and 2020 respectively and the figure of the same in
Bangladesh will be 0.255 million and 0.415 million in the corresponding years
(WTO, 2000). Shamim (2000) showed
according to WTO forecast that the earnings from tourism will rise to US$ 2
trillion a year by 2020.
The tourism industry of Bangladesh is of no
exception from this. It can play an important role to contribute in the
national economy of the country. In view of several holy shrines in the country
there is the prospect of attracting millions of tourists to the country. But
full potential of tourism could not be used largely due to inadequate and
ineffective promotional activities of the industry. Institutional framework for
attracting tourists has been in existence for more than three decades, but
various institutions promote Bangladesh tourism with little coordination. This
is construed to be one of the major hurdles adversely affecting the promotional
activities and the resultant growth rate of the tourism industry in the
country. It is of utmost importance to examine the special features of tourism
firms' promotional activities and suggest how to improve those activities in
order to attract a reasonably good number of foreign tourists to visit the
country and take their services. So far the researcher knows no comprehensive
study addressing promotional aspects of the industry in Bangladesh has been
conducted yet by anyone. Even a very few studies are available related to the
issue of tourism marketing in Bangladesh. As tourism industry in Bangladesh has
failed to undertake adequate and effective promotional activities due to policy
guidelines, resource constraints, and they lack of marketing orientation,
hence, a study on this area is essential to uncover the relevant facts. It is
also expected that the findings and analysis of this study will help formulate
appropriate promotional measures and thus motivate effectively more potential
foreign tourists to visit Bangladesh as well as to contribute the economy of
the country. At the same time, this study may be helpful for the policy-makers
of the country to devote their attention to the issue of the segments of the
tourism market that they wish to attract.
3.3 Research Areas
On the basis of the research problem, the
proposed study will mainly attempt to concentrate on the following areas:
A. To
study the current development trends of the tourism industry in Bangladesh;
B. To
examine the promotional activities undertaken by the different tour operators
and evaluate the role of their activities for the development of this industry;
C. To
identify the problems and limitations of promotional activities undertaken by
the above mentioned tourism firms; and
D. To
prescribe necessary policies and managerial implications of the tour operating
firms in Bangladesh in light of findings and current theory in the field.
3.4 The Research Problems
Tourism marketing is gaining importance all
over the world. ‘The marketing of tourism in Third World countries is
increasingly common and the fastest growing destinations are in these regions
and increasingly the focal points for development and marketing of new,
adventurous and exotic tourist destinations. As a result, most of the fastest
growing tourism regions are in the Third World countries which continue to grow
and, correspondingly, the promotion of these regions is increasingly popular
and important’ (Echtner and Prasad, 2002).
Currently, about 30% of all international tourist arrivals are in the
Third World and this proportion has nearly tripled over the past 20 years (WTO,
1999). However, over the last few
decades, there has been mounting criticism of the portrayal of these
destinations and their people in promotional materials (Britton, 1979; Mohamed,
1988; Cohen, 1989; Crick, 1989; Selwyn, 1993; Silver 1993; Cooper, 1994; Wilson
1994; Dann, 1996a, b; Morgan and Prichard, 1998; Sturma 1999 as cited in
Echtner, 2002). Major part of these
criticism trace to the unique marketing situation that characterises the
promotion of tourism in the Third World.
Considerably less has been written on Third
World tourism marketing and there are a few notable articles that generally
address the issues of marketing Third World destinations (Britton, 1979;
Silver, 1993) as well as several studies that critically examine specific sets
of Third World tourism promotion (Cohen, 1989; Cooper, 1994, Dann, 1996b;
Mohamed, 1988; Morgan and Pritchard, 1998; Oppermann and McKinley, 1997;
Selwyn, 1993;).
Bangladesh as a third world country has the
lacking of proper study and attention on tourism promotion. As a result, though
the tourism industry of Bangladesh has a bright prospect and could contribute
to the economy to a greater extent, but the sector could not flourish up to the
mark due to lack of necessary and proper initiative of the concerned
firms/institutions. Patwari (1993) emphasized to eliminate this organizational
problem and suggested for the coordinated efforts of the concerned authorities,
professional efficiency of the management, and pleasant behavior of the service
providers to present the products or services and develop tourism fruitfully in
a country like Bangladesh. Pannell Kerr Forster Associates’ Report (1988)
blamed that the BPC for not playing its role completely as a national tourism
promotion agency and suggested preparing itself for playing its proper role in
this regard. These reveal that there remains ample scope for further expansion
and growth of the tourism industry if effective promotional activities are
taken to cater to the expectations of the tourists and motivate them to visit
Bangladesh. Hossain (1999) pointed out that a very few studies have addressed
the promotional aspects even the marketing aspects of tourism in Bangladesh.
Only a few articles and a few research reports appear to have attempted to deal
with the marketing problems of the tourism industry in Bangladesh in a
skin-deep and peripheral manner (Hossain and Hossain, 2002). Hasan(1988)
pointed out that the promotional activities undertaken by the Bangladesh
Parjatan Corporation (BPC) is awfully inadequate to cover the main tourist
generating countries and suggested for developing more dynamic promotion tool.
He also blamed in another study that the BPC’s present promotion strategy with
folders and posters is not satisfactory and would not produce any result (Hasan
h, 1990). Review of literature on the
development of the tourism industry in Bangladesh also reveals that there
remains much to do in matching the supply side with what the tourists demand
from the host country.
As noted by Adams (1984) and Reimer (1990), a remarkable marketing situation
characterizes Third World tourism promotion, that is, these destinations are
most often promoted by multinational tour operators, travel agencies, and other
intermediaries with origins in the First World. The primary targets of these
marketing efforts are also located in the First World, as the developed
countries are the main generators of tourists (Echtner & Prasad, 2003). This situation creates a marketing system
whereby the majority of the images used to represent Third World tourism
destinations are selected by First World promoters in order to cater to the
needs of consumers in developed countries which results many of the concerns
aired by previous researchers focus on the images and stereo-types of the Third
World that are being created from a primarily First World perspective (Echtner
2002).
In the face of worldwide stiff competition,
intangible nature of tourism services and need of pre-purchase information for
potential tourists, promotional measures in tourism industry play key role in
the performance and development of this industry. As Bangladesh tourism appears
to have suffered mostly due to inadequate and ineffective promotional
activities, it is necessary to study the strategic promotional approaches of
the tour operators in Bangladesh and find out the remedies to overcome the
problems or limitations identified.
Chapter- 4
Research Methodology and Techniques
4.1 The Nature of the Study
Promotional activities can play the
significant role for the development of tourism industry. Tourism in Bangladesh
is of no exception from this. Lack of promotional activities is likely to
affects the development of tourism in any country as well as in Bangladesh. But
the existing literature on the promotional aspects of Bangladesh tourism is
very rare and even on the literature covering the marketing aspects of tourism
industry in Bangladesh is very limited. As a result, the study is exploratory
in nature. It was assumed that promotion is a vital force for an effective
marketing strategy of tourism products and services. But Bangladesh is far
behind from the realization of the fact and due to that Bangladesh could not
take advantage of the full potential of the sector and which causes not to
develop the industry significantly and expectation which could be and failed to
earn sufficient amount of foreign currency. The present study on the use of
promotional activities in Bangladesh tourism industry is an attempt to
highlight the issues related to promotion and put forward some suggestions to
what actual promotional measures are best suited for attracting more tourists
to Bangladesh and contribute more positively to the economy of the country. It
was also attempted to identify the promotional approaches of the industry in
Bangladesh.
4.2 Source of Data and Data Collection Procedure
The research has been conducted based on both
primary and secondary data. As it was mentioned earlier that the existing
literature on the promotional aspects of Bangladesh tourism and even on the
overall marketing aspects is not adequate, the study was done on the primary
data collected through questionnaire on the use of promotional activities by
Bangladesh tourism industry. Secondary data was also used in this study.
A survey questionnaire was used to collect the
primary data from the sample selected for this study. The five relevant top
executives from BPC and 15 private tour operators were interviewed for the
collection of the data. Again, the private tour operators were selected from
the members’ list of Tour Operators’ Association of Bangladesh (TOAB). To
collect the primary data, the researcher took the help from one of his friends
working as an Associate Professor, Marketing), University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
It is worth mentioning here that most of the tour operators are located in
Dhaka and an insignificant number of them are located in other larger cities of
the country. Due to the lake of time and fund, all the tour operators for
interview were selected only from Dhaka- the capital city of Bangladesh.
Secondary data was also used in this study. To
collect the secondary data, annual reports of BPC, related journals,
periodicals, newspapers, BPC’s web page etc. were consulted. In addition to
that for literature review and for other theoretical analysis different
journals, periodicals, textbooks, newspapers, internet and other related
materials were consulted and used as references.
4.3 Population and Sample Size of this Study
Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) – the
only National Tourism Organization or government owned tourism organization in
Bangladesh, the private tour operators (only the members of TOAB) were
considered as the population for this study. It was mentioned in the previous
section that a total number of five top executives from BPC and fifteen
owners/top executives from the private tour operators were selected as the
respondents for collecting the data on the promotional aspects tourism in
Bangladesh.
The responses of the respondents interviewed
were analysed to gain insights into both qualitative and quantitative aspects
of the promotional activities used by their firms. Both qualitative and
quantitative analysis of the collected data from the respondents’ firms has
been made. In quantitative analysis of the data, conventional statistical tool
like percentage, simple averages etc have been used.
4.4 Organization of the Study
The research was conducted considering the
time frame allowed for the study. The whole discussion of the study has been
organized in a systematic way and has presented in six different chapters. The
first chapter includes an introductory discussion covering the justification of
the study, research areas, problems and questions. The second chapter is a
presentation of the research methodology or the procedure of conducting the
study. The third one is on the theoretical discussion on the different terms
and issue like- defining tourism and its related terms, different forms of
tourism, literature review, introductory discussion on promotion etc. Chapter
four discusses the product specification or the tourist attractions in
Bangladesh, economic significance of tourism, the perception of the
international tourists to Bangladesh as a tourist destination and the chapter
ends with the analysis of statistics on tourist arrivals and earnings from this
sector which mainly focuses on the different aspects like world tourism and its
status, regional arrivals and earnings, position of Asia and South Asia,
tourist arrivals to Bangladesh and earnings from the same, spending of
Bangladesh tourism for promotional activities etc. Chapter five is empirical
analysis of the study which includes role of promotion in tourism marketing,
transportation, accommodation and food and drinks in tourism and also the
respondents’ attitudes, views and suggestions about promotion etc. The chapter
contains the conclusion and recommendations based the whole discussion of the
study.
4.5 Literature Review
Though there are sufficient amount of
literatures highlighting the marketing aspects of tourism, but a few of them
has emphasized on the discussion of the promotional aspects of tourism
marketing. At the same time, the literature attempted to deal with marketing
aspects of tourism is not available enough especially, on the promotional
issues of tourism marketing is much neglected and the literature on the same is
very limited. In this study, the literature review includes the following:
Hossain and Hossain (2002) mentioned that
tourism industry has gained top priority in most of the destination countries
and there exist increased competition among the countries to attract tourists.
In the face of world-wide increased competition, Bangladesh lacks far behind in
attracting relatively larger number of foreign tourists mainly due to
inadequate and ineffective promotional strategies of the industry due to lack
of sufficient funds, low quality of promotional materials and its improper
distribution, perceived negative image of potential tourists about Bangladesh
etc. The authors also emphasized to face the competition and to attract
potential tourists Bangladesh needs to give priority to use effective
promotional activities in order to attract a significant number of foreign
tourists to visit the country. In addition, tour operating firms need to give
proper attention in developing the promotional materials and careful attention
is required to incorporate the factors affecting the choice of potential tourists.
Without effective and sufficient promotional activities in public and private
sector of the industry, there is no possibility or little possibility to emerge
tourism as a major contributor to the national economy.
The first International Tourism and Media
Conference held in November 24-26, 2004 at Latrobe University in Melbourne,
Australia addressed the relationships between tourism and media and focused on
the thematic areas including film and literature induced tourism, decision
making and risk perception, advertising and marketing and tourism associated
with events and activities (Gammack, 2005).
The author claimed based on the discussion of the conference that
various media help to a great extent to convey the destination awareness among
the tourists and with an increasingly globally informed and media-savvy public,
one key issue related to understanding tourists’ motivation and expectation. He
also concluded that destination branding and promotion are supported by
compelling propositions and images and their aesthetic selections and media
treatments generate portrayals active in the public mind. Research concerning
media and tourism relationships, adopting mixed methods and cross-disciplinary
designs allowed larger questions of fact and imagination in touristic media to
be addressed.
Tourism researchers have long been advocating
the importance of tourist receiving destinations to perform appropriate
marketing strategies to promote the right tourism products and service to
specific traveler groups (Ahmed and Krohn, 1992; Mill and Morrison, 1985 as
cited in Law et. al, 2004). The authors
commented by visiting the official Destination Marketing Organization Web sites
of Korea (http://big5.chinese.tour 2korea.com) and Japan
(http://jnto.go.jp/eng), two of the most visited destinations by Hong Kong
travellers that both of these destinations have developed their Web sites in a
way that promote Hong Kong travellers’ favourite activities such as food,
sightseeing and shopping. From the practical point of view, it is obvious for
an effective marketing strategy to target the appropriate market and plan
product positioning and sales. Bangladesh Tourism industry is far behind from
this.
Rita and Moutinho (1992) noted that National
Tourism Organization (NTO) in any country is responsible for expanding a
country’s incoming tourism and NTO’s main task is to promote the destination
country in the global tourism markets. As a result, NTO has to identify the
most attractive markets - the markets in which its country’s ‘products’ are
most competitive, determine the appropriate amount of promotional budgets,
allocating the promotion budget in a way so that the greater effectiveness can
be achieved, what type of promotional message is appropriate to convey for
attracting the potential tourists. For promoting tourism industry, marketers
are expected to and consider the strategic imperatives of making meaningful
progress in the long run rather than short-term sustainability. The authors
also emphasized on the ideas that should be grown and improved over a period of
years to realize the full value of potential of promotions rather than forcing
the underlying concepts to stop and start over a period of days, weeks or
months. In addition to that NTO should have a well plan for promotional
activities for achieving the marketing objectives which requires deciding on
the priorities and goals before allocating money and resources for promotion to
have the better result of the promotional activities. Finally, they recommended
that money spend on promotion should depend the factors like: disposable
income, relative price, quality, attractiveness, product availability, average
annual percentage growth by market,, length of stay, per capita spending,
expenditure per visit,, buying habits, competitive pressure, travel distance
and costs, travel intensity, potential for getting non-government funding,
political factors, overseas staff resources and knowledge etc.
Hasan (1992)
described the present situation of Bangladesh tourism industry and present
marketing strategies in his research book “Problems and Prospect of Bangladesh
Tourism Industry” has blamed that Bangladesh tourism industry could not achieve
the remarkable progress in comparison to other neighboring (South Asian)
countries though the country is endowed
with different tourism attractions. His criticism was concentrated mainly on
the failure of BPC to develop and lunch any dynamic and effective promotional
strategy and then he suggested creating an independent and different organization
for performing the marketing activities of BPC owned tourists spots. In
addition to that he strongly recommended for initiating and implementing the
marketing plan and strategy effecting for the potential markets and to avoid
the aimless policies to develop mass tourism at the present stage in
Bangladesh.
Ahmed (1996) mentioned that possessing
outstanding tourism resources is not sufficient to lure the optimal number of
tourists to a tourist destination. According to the author, tourism promotion
plays an
Important role in enhancing the competitive
edge of one tourist destination over another because of tourists’ image of a
destination and the attitude of tourists toward that destination seem to be two
of the most important factors responsible for this variation. As a result, the
aggressiveness of the promotion campaigns launched by tourist destinations has
added a new dimension to competitiveness and has resulted in increasing numbers
of image advertisements in travel and tourism literature and in the mass media
which leads the tourist destinations to spend billions of dollars annually on
image building and image correction promotion programs. The author also
concluded in his study to formulate the promotional strategy, destination’s
promotion strategists should identify the respective images of different
constituents of total image, and not just one total image and by determining
those constituents of a destination’s tourist image that are most significant
in the evaluation made by various segments of the target market, the
destination’s promotion strategists should direct promotional efforts toward
inducing a more favorable image based on those constituents and the appropriate
positive image constituents then could be emphasized in the segmented
promotional programs which may help a destination to re-emerge from the effects
of negative image(s).
Siddqui (2005), the Marketing Communication Manager, Pan
Pacific Sonargaon Hotel, Bangladesh claimed that though Bangladesh has lots of
things for tourism, but the country lacks in the initiatives to expose it to
the potential tourists. He added that marketing communication can play an
important role to let the people abroad to know what fantastic products
Bangladesh can offer to the tourists. He emphasized on the cooperative efforts
of the National Tourism Organization (NTO) with the private tour operators
rather than emerging as the competitor for the overall development tourism
industry. He also concluded that National airlines, hotels and the foreign
missions of the country or at least an officer in each mission abroad with the
responsibility of encouraging the potential tourists through providing
necessary information and cooperation can contribute to a great extent for
promoting the tourism industry of any country.
Addressing the way to promote Bangladesh as a
tourist destination, Chantarachoti (2005) described that in the eyes of
foreigners Bangladesh is seen as a business destination rather than as a
tourist destination when in actual fact there are potentials to explore in this
country if properly promoted and promotion supported by government to the
outside world. He also blamed that though Bangladesh has its abundant potential
for growth of tourism industry could not utilized it properly due to lack of
government support as well as the right initiatives of the country’s NTO to
highlight Bangladesh to the eyes of foreigners as a tourist destination instead
of a business destination. Though there is lot of similarities between India
and Bangladesh and even with Nepal, Bangladesh is far behind from the mentioned
two other countries due to the ineffective and insufficient promotional
activities. Chantarachoti also claimed that the high foreign travel tax
discourages foreigners to visit Bangladesh. Finally, he also emphasized that
government’s initiative can reduce the monopoly of the five star hotels by
providing the facilities of establishing more hotels of different start and
improving the infrastructure support, accommodation and land arrangements to
promote and sell packages.
Mitra (2005) described that Bangladesh does
not have enough effort to promote the country as a tourist destination. He
argued that Bangladesh has to make aware to the tourists about what to see,
where to stay and what to eat. He emphasized for the development of tourism
industry, Bangladesh need to develop the infrastructure like hotels, resorts,
promoting more places and there should have a link of the government tourism
organization with the private sector to boost up the promotional activities for
the same.
In another study Hasan (1990) criticized that
the present promotional activities undertaken by BPC is limited with folders
and posters which does not produce any satisfactory result. He opined that
folders, posters, accommodation guide, maps, etc could only be effective promotion
tools if the market is established and emphasized that the industry needs to be
more concerned with promotion rather than tourism trade. According to his
opinion, the opening of its own offices at some of the major tourist generating
countries to perform the promotional activities, re-build or correcting the
image of the country and establish liaison with tour operators, professional
clubs, tour wholesalers, etc. may produce better result for the growth of the
industry.
Hossain and Firozzaman (2003) mentioned that
Bangladesh tourism industry failed to grow properly not merely because it lacks
in enough attractions but suffering mostly due to inadequate and effective
promotional activities. They also claimed that the limited promotional
materials like souvenirs, brochures, travel guides, accommodation guides, hand
books, tourist maps, poster, folders, etc distributed by BPC and some other
private tour operators don’t reach properly to the potential tourists and in
addition to that, the quality of these materials is not satisfactory which
causes not to create adequate curiosity among the potential tourists. At the
same time, there are lacks in government initiative to offset or correcting the
country’s present image prevailing to the outside of the country as the country
presently is suffering a lot from the image problem. The researchers also
blamed that BPC or other private tour operators have little connection with the
foreign tour operators and travel agencies for promoting Bangladesh tourism
abroad though they act as hidden promoters of tourism activities in any tourist
destination. According to the authors, lack of coordination among the parties
related to tourism sector e.g. Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, BPC,
Biman Bangladesh Airlines, tour operators, travel agencies, hotels, other
provides, local authorities and host population also causes for not developing
the industry in Bangladesh. Finally, they suggested devoting the proper
attention of the policy-makers in this field of the country to overcome the
limitation of the promotional measures of this industry and taking a
coordinated effort among the parties involved in this industry.
Hasan (1988)
stated that though the promotion of tourism of a country is greatly
depend on the magnitude of publicity, the promotional campaign of BPC is
awfully inadequate to cover the main tourist generating countries. Due to
sufferings for fund crisis for promotion activities, BPC’s promotional
activities are limited to producing and distributing different kinds of
literatures, folders, booklets, tourist maps, guide books, brochures, picture,
post cards, view cards, posters, leaflets, accommodation guide etc. to make
potential tourists aware of the interesting and important historical places,
scenic beauties, adventurism, health resorts, rich and ramified culture etc. He
also mentioned that the theme used in these promotional materials is not
dynamic which fails to draw the attention of the potential tourists. Then he
emphasized to maintain a liaison and meaningful cooperation among various
governments, tourist organizations, travel agencies and tour operators
especially among the SAARC countries to promote the industry effectively.
Marketing communication method is known as the
promotion mix and includes advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and
publicity (Norgan, 1994). Then the
author noted that most organizations marketing products or services to the
general public would use a combination of at least two of these methods in
order to achieve marketing objectives and sales targets. Kotler, et al
(2005) mentioned that a company’s total
marketing communication mix– also called its promotion mix– consists of the
specific blend of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public
relations and direct marketing tools that the company uses to pursue its
advertising and marketing objectives. The promotional mix is traditionally
perceived to consist of four elements: advertising, sales promotion, public
relations and personal selling (Fill, 1999). The author also mentioned that in response to
changing market and environmental conditions, public relations is now seen by
some to have a marketing and a corporate dimension and on the other hand direct
marketing is now recognized as an important way of developing personal
relationships with buyers, both consumer and organizational. This discussion
leads to have an understanding about the elements of promotion mix and the
major are:
Advertising is a non-personal form of mass
communication and offers a high degree of control for those responsible for the
design and delivery of the advertising message (Fill, 1999). Then the author stated that the flexibility
of this tool is good because it can be used to communicate with a national
audience or a particular specialized segments and a vast number of people can
be reached with the message, so the cost per contact can be the lowest of the
tools in the mix. At the same time the author blamed that the ability of
advertising to persuade the target audience to think or behave in a particular
way is suspect and the effect on sales is extremely hard to measure and in
addition, the credibility in that audience is less likely to believe message
delivered through advertising than they messages received through some other
tools.
Personal selling is traditionally perceived as
a communication tool which involves face-to-face activities undertaken by
individuals, often representating an organization, in order to inform, persuade
or remind an individual or group to take appropriate action, as required by the
sponsor’s representative (Fill, 1999, p. 6).
According to the author, a sales person engages in communication in a
one-to-one basis where instantaneous feedback is possible and the costs
associated with interpersonal communication are normally very large.
Public relations is the art and social science
of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling organization’s
leadership, and implementing planned programs of action which will serve both
the organization’s and the public interest (The Mexican Statement, 1978). The statement also indicates the necessity of
public relation of being a part of the wider perspective of corporate strategy.
Third-party like magazines, newspapers, news programs etc. disseminate the
messages on behalf of particular company or organization. The increasing use of public relations and in
particular publicity is a reflection of the high credibility attached to this
form of communication and there is no charge for the media space or time but
there are costs incurred in the production of the material (Fill, 1999). Press relations, product publicity, corporate
communications, lobbying and counseling etc. are the different tools which can
be used for public relation effectively.
Sales
promotion includes those activities which provide an incentive, additional to
the basic benefits provided by a product or service, and which temporarily
change the perceived price/value relationship of that product or service (Shimp
and DeLozier, 1986). Again, Kotler, et
al (2005) defined sales promotion as the short-term incentives to encourage the
purchase or sale of a product or service. According to the authors, samples,
cash refunds, price packs, premiums, advertising specialities, patronage
rewards, point-of-purchase displays and demonstrations, and contests,
sweepstakes and games can be used for consumer promotion tools and many of the
tools used for consumer promotions- contests, premiums, displays – can be used
as trade promotions or alternatively, the manufacturer may offer a straight
discount off the list price on each case purchased during a stated period of
time (also called a price-off, off-invoice or off-list whereas in business
promotion includes many of the same tools used for consumer or trade promotions
but mainly conventions and trade shows and sales contests are used for business
promotions. It is important to mention here that in deciding on the tools of
sales promotion, marketers need to consider the competition and cost
effectiveness of each tool.
Direct Marketing is defined as any activity
which creates and profitably exploits a direct relationship between the company
and its prospect (Bird, 1982, as stated in Norgan, 1994). The author also mentioned that once the
relationship is initiated, it can be developed and maintained with a variety of
promotional techniques, from direct mail to personal selling. Direct marketing
is a term used to refer to all media activities that generate a series of
communications and responses with an existing or potential customer (Fill,
1999). Telephone, mail, fax, e-mail, the
Internet etc can be used to communicate directly with specific consumers and to
create and sustain a personal and intermediary-free dialogue with them.
The above discussion leads to a conclusion
that a marketer can use any of the promotion tools or a combination of more
than one tool for promoting a product or service. But it depends on the nature
of the product, price, customers’ locations, prevailing competition, cost
involved, availability of the budget for promotion, company’s overall
objectives etc. It is worth mentioning here, that the success of the
promotional activities largely depends on the realistic selection of the
promotional tool(s) and the creativity in operating the promotional activities.
4.6 Perception or Image of Bangladesh as a Tourist Destination
The perception toward a tourist destination is
the sum total of beliefs, ideas, impressions, and expectations that a tourist
holds about a destination. Engel et al. (1986) stated that image refers to the
consumers’ subjective perceptions of how an alternative performs on important important role in providing competitive
advantages to one tourist destination over another. Tourists perceive many
images of their destinations and these images in turn influence their behavior,
attitude, and predispositions as consumers (Ahmed, 1996). The author also pointed out that merely
possessing outstanding tourism resources are not sufficient to attract the
optimal number of tourists to a tourist destination rather tourists’ image of a
destination and the attitude of tourists toward that destination seem to be two
of the most important factors responsible for this variation. The author
consider this behind the aggressiveness of the promotion campaigns lunched by
tourist destinations has added a new dimension to competitiveness and has
resulted in increasing numbers of image advertisements in travel and tourism
literature and in the mass media and collectively the tourist destinations are
spending billions of dollars annually on image building and image correction
promotion programs.
Briton (1979, as cited in Echtner 2002) in his
article “The Image of the Third World in Tourism Marketing” pointed out the
inability of the tourism industry to represent destinations as real places and
noted that the Third World destinations are portrayed as paradise, unspoiled,
sensuous, mystical and /or exotic and these types of representation affect
tourists’ expectations and behavior. In addition to that when tourists perceive
of places as less than real their behavior is less than acceptable. Culture is
an important dimension to attract tourists to a particular destination. The
strengthening of cultural links is important to overcome the often negative perception
of India and South Asia in general among Southeast Asian countries (Yahya,
2003). Bangladesh as a South Asian
country can develop the cultural link with its surrounding regions to overcome
the image problem and can attract more tourists from other South Asian and
Southeast Asian countries.
I am sure this program runs in many countries.
But where is Bangladesh in this regard? I had to mention India's name to
several people while trying to explain the location of Bangladesh, whose name
they have seldom heard.” This indicates that Bangladesh is suffering from not
only image problem but also from the point of identity to some extent. Muqbil (2005) mentioned that Bangladesh has
taken little measures to counter its "negative image abroad" as a
country that faces "abject poverty, floods and cyclones" and blamed
that in 2003-04, the Tourism Corporation, which is responsible for marketing,
was given only 10 million taka (about US$158,000) and for the fiscal years
2004-05 and 2005-06, "no funds have been allocated" making it
impossible to conduct marketing campaigns in a highly competitive market. He
also commented that complicated visa formalities and irritating attitudes of
the employees in most of the Bangladesh missions abroad discourage many tourists.
Though the number of foreign visitors in not
large, but who visited the country returned with a good feeling with
good-looking attractions of the country, rich cultural heritage, magnificent
natural beauty, cheap service and facilities and above all the friendly
reception and cordial acceptance and hospitality of the local community. But
the county or the National Tourism organization could not reverse the existing
image of the country by highlighting the real atmosphere and situation suitable
for the tourists. It is expected that the BPC along with other private tour
operators will prioritize the issue of correcting the image by undertaking
aggressive promotional measures in order to develop tourism in Bangladesh. The
government should also extend the cooperation in this regard by playing the
major role in building the positive image so that the industry can play it
proper role to the economy of the country.
4.7 Tourists’ Impressions on the
Price of Some Important Tourism Components
Tourists’ impressions toward the tourism
service(s) are important for the marketers. The positive impression obviously
will result the repeat visit by the same tourist as well as it will serve the
purpose of word of mouth advertisement for the destination. Buyers judge whether
a product or service is fairly priced by asking themselves whether it
represents value for money (Holloway and Chris, 1995). It is expected that the tourists will receive
more value or at least equal to their perceived value after visiting the
destination or tourist spot. Any change in price or quality at a particular
point of time will also change consumers’ perception on the value (Hossain,
19990). The author attempted to show in
his study about the reasonableness of prices on some selected components of
tourism arrangements in Bangladesh which is presented in the following table
(Table 4.1):
Table- Tourists’ Impressions on the Prices of Some
Important Tourism Components
Tourism Components
|
Don’t
Know Frequency
|
Highly Reasonable
(5)
|
Quite Reasonable
(4)
|
Fairly Reasonable
(3)
|
Quite Unreasonable
(2)
|
Highly Unreasonable
(1)
|
Mean Score
|
Food & Drinks
|
6
(5.94)
|
7
(6.93)
|
23
(22.77)
|
48
(47.52)
|
16
(15.84)
|
1
(0.99)
|
3.2
|
Accommodation
|
13
(12.87)
|
5
(4.95)
|
16
(15.84)
|
41
(40.59)
|
18
(17.82)
|
8
(7.92)
|
2.91
|
Transport
|
12
(11.88)
|
5
(4.95)
|
46
(45.54)
|
32
(31.68)
|
6
(5.94)
|
00
(00)
|
3.56
|
Guided Packaged Tours
|
62
(61.38)
|
4
(3.96)
|
7
(6.93)
|
13
(12.87)
|
12
(11.88)
|
3
(2.97)
|
2.92
|
Information materials
|
48
(47.52)
|
21
(20.79)
|
19
(18.81)
|
9
(8.91)
|
4
(3.96)
|
00
(00)
|
4.08
|
4.8 Effectiveness of Promotional Measures of
Bangladesh Tourism Industry
It was mentioned earlier
that promotional measures play a vital role in tourism marketing like other
products or services which needs the marketers to conduct the same in an
effective way. Effectiveness in this regard means how the promotion can produce
the positive result by influencing the tourists to visit the promoter’s
destination. So, effectiveness is important rather than how much the promoter
has spent for this purpose or how many times he has advertised or even which
media he has used. The ultimate goal is to reach the advertiser’s message to
the potential tourists and to influence them positively to visit the
destination of the advertiser. The following table (Table 4.2) shows the
effectiveness of various forms of promotional measures of Bangladesh
Form of Promotion
|
Don’t
Know Frequency
(%)
|
Highly
Effective
(%)
(5)
|
Quite
Effective
(%)
(4)
|
Fairly
Effective
(%)
(3)
|
Quite
Ineffective
(%)
(2)
|
Highly
Ineffective
(%)
(1)
|
Mean score
|
Advertisement
|
86
(85.14)
|
00
(00)
|
1
(0.99)
|
10
(9.90)
|
2
(1.98)
|
2
(1.98)
|
2.67
|
Publicity
|
81
(80.19)
|
00
(00)
|
5
(4.95)
|
9
(8.91)
|
5
(4.95)
|
1
(0.99)
|
2.90
|
Information Materials (Brochures, Guides, Souvenirs,
Folders, Handbooks.)
|
48
(47.52)
|
4
(3.96)
|
14
(13.86)
|
18
(17.82)
|
11
(10.89)
|
6
(5.94)
|
2.98
|
Posters and View Cards
|
74
(73.26)
|
2
(1.98)
|
5
(4.95)
|
8
(7.92)
|
10
(9.90)
|
2
(1.98)
|
2.81
|
Cable TV Highlights
|
86
(85.14)
|
2
(1.98)
|
2
(1.98)
|
4
(3.96)
|
4
3.96()
|
3
(2.97)
|
2.73
|
Internet
|
93
(92.07)
|
00
(00)
|
2
(1.98)
|
5
(4.95)
|
1
(0.99)
|
00
(00)
|
3.13
|
Word of Mouth (WOM)
|
53
(52.47)
|
17
(16.83)
|
18
(17.82)
|
12
(11.88)
|
1
(0.99)
|
00
(00)
|
4.06
|
Motivation by Foreign Tour Operators
|
62
(61.38)
|
5
(4.95)
|
22
(21.78)
|
9
(8-91)
|
2
(1.98)
|
1
(0.99)
|
3.72
|
Motivation by Foreign Travel Agencies
|
81
(80.19)
|
00
(00)
|
7
(6.93)
|
6
(5.94)
|
5
(4.95)
|
2
(1.98)
|
2.90
|
Biman’s Overseas Offices
|
83
(82.17)
|
00
(00)
|
2
(1.98)
|
5
(4.95)
|
4
(3.96)
|
7
(6.93)
|
2.11
|
Bangladesh Mission Abroad
|
65
(64.35)
|
2
(1.98)
|
5
(4.95)
|
11
(10.89)
|
11
(10.89)
|
7
(6.93)
|
2.56
|
Source: Hossain, Md. Afjal and Firozzaman, M. (2003)
Strategic Promotional Approaches to Developing Tourism in Bangladesh: An
Empirical Study of Some Selected Tour Operators, Bureau of Business Research,
University of Dhaka, p. 51
It is found from the above table (Table
4.2) that only word of mouth is quite effective with a mean score of 4.06.
Tourists rely more on personal source of information and, hence, personal
selling will be the most effective promotional tool in tourism marketing
(Kumar, 1994). The mean score of Internet is 3.13 and motivation by foreign
tour operators is 3.72 which indicate that these two forms of promotional
measures are fairly effective. Though the national airlines can play an active
and vital role for country’s tourism industry, but the image of Biman
Bangladesh Airline is not good and the Biman’s overseas offices failed to
contribute in this regard. The mean score of Biman’s overseas offices is 2.11
which indicate that as a form of promotion, it is ineffective. The researchers
also mentioned that the overall mean score of effectiveness of all the
promotional forms accounted to 3.10 with a standard deviation of 0.53 which is
slightly higher than the mid-value of the scale. This overall mean
effectiveness score 3.10 can be considered that the promotional measures of
Bangladesh tourism industry is fairly effective.
4.9
Statistics on Tourist Arrivals and Earnings
The
overall picture of the present status of the tourism industry of any country
can be considered in terms of the number of tourist arrivals and the earning
from this sector. Anyone can measure the position of any country’s tourism and
its share to the world market or to any regional or even to sub-regional
markets. The statistical data and its trend is one of the major indicators by
which any one can have an idea on the sector. Here, the researcher attempted to
focus on position of the same sector based on the statistical data on the
number of tourist arrivals and the earnings from the sector.
4.10 World Tourist Arrivals and Receipts
The
mobility of tourism market is booming. Now it is one of the fastest growing and
the single largest industry in the world and is now considered as a vital force
for the economic development of any country. The contribution of tourism is
multi-dimensional like: to foreign exchange earnings, employment generation,
exchanging cultural views, peace keeping and as a whole for the economic
development especially for the developing countries like Bangladesh. As a
result, every country is trying to attract more tourists to its destination in
order to earn more foreign currency which results an increasing trend both in
tourist arrivals and earning every year. The following table (Table 4.3) shows
the picture of world tourist arrivals and the earnings from this sector:
Year
|
Arrivals (Million)
|
Change
|
Receipts
(Billion US$) |
Change(%)
|
1990
|
441
|
-
|
280
|
-
|
1995
|
538
|
-
|
423
|
-
|
2000
|
681
|
-
|
496
|
-
|
2001
|
680
|
0.15%
|
482
|
-2.82%
|
2002
|
700
|
2.94%
|
482
|
00%
|
2003
|
690
|
-1.43%
|
524
|
8.71%
|
2004
|
763
|
10.58%
|
623
|
18.89%
|
2005
|
808
|
5.90%
|
NA
|
NA
|
Source: UNWTO
Tourism Highlights, Edition 2005, World Tourism Organization, available from:
http://www.world-tourism.org/facts/menu.html (accessed 18.5.06)
NA – Not available
The above
table indicates that the total world tourist arrivals in 1990 were 444 million
and in 2005 it increased to 808 million which is about doubled in the last
fifteen years. On the other hand the earning from the same was US$ 280 in 1990
and it increased to US$ 623 which 223% of base year 1990. The growth rate of
the earnings is more than the same of the tourist arrivals. The overall trend
of both arrivals and earnings form this sector is very amazing.
4.11 International Tourist Arrivals and Earnings by
Regions
It was
revealed from the previous discussion that the world’s tourism is performing
very well at least in-terms of the number of tourist arrivals and the earnings
from the industry. But it does not provide any guarantee that every region has
the same picture. Some regions have more upward trend and other do not have.
Considering this view, researcher attempted to find out the scenario of the
industry and the following table (Table 4.4) presents the regional performance
of tourist arrivals:
Year
|
Regions
|
Total
World Arrivals
|
||||
Africa
|
The
America
|
Asia and
the Pacific
|
Europe
|
Middle
East
|
||
1990
|
15,160
|
92,803
|
57,740
|
265,290
|
10,040
|
441,033
|
(3.44)
|
(21.04)
|
(13.09)
|
(60.15)
|
(2.28)
|
(100.00)
|
|
1995
|
20,438
|
108,994
|
85,024
|
309,306
|
14,300
|
538,062
|
(3.80)
|
(20.26)
|
(15.80)
|
(57.49)
|
(2.66)
|
(100.00)
|
|
2000
|
28,154
|
128,160
|
114,863
|
384,147
|
25,238
|
680,562
|
(4.14)
|
(18.83)
|
(16.88)
|
(56.45)
|
(3.71)
|
(100.00)
|
|
2002
|
29,492
|
116,637
|
131,108
|
394,034
|
29,156
|
700,427
|
(4.21)
|
(16.65)
|
(18.72)
|
(56.26)
|
(4.16)
|
(100.00)
|
|
2003
|
30,763
|
113,093
|
119,255
|
396,579
|
29,999
|
689,689
|
(4.46)
|
(16.40)
|
(17.29)
|
(57.50)
|
(4.35)
|
(100.00)
|
|
2004
|
33,222
|
125,757
|
152,503
|
416,362
|
35,391
|
763,235
|
(4.35)
|
(16.48)
|
(19.98)
|
(54.55)
|
(4.64)
|
(100.00)
|
|
It is
clear from the above table that Europe captured the major share of the world
tourism market and attracted 265, 290,000 tourists in 1990 which increased to
416, 362,000 in 2004 and the share in total world tourist arrivals was 60.15 percent
and 54.55 percent respectively for the same period. America had 21.04 percent
share in 1990 and 16.48 percent in 2004 though the number of tourist arrivals
increased to 125,757, 000 from 92,160,000 in the same period. It is important
to note that both the Europe and the America lost its market share by 5.60
percent and 4.56 percent during the period. On the other hand, the position of
Asia and the Pacific is attracting. This region gained its position during the
period under consideration both in terms of the number of tourist arrivals and
its share to total world arrivals. The data shows that the number of arrivals
increased to 152,503,000 in 2004 from 57,740,000 in 1990 and the share of which
increased to 19.98 percent from 13.09 percent in the same period. The growth
rate in tourist arrivals in Asia and the Pacific is accelerating than any other
regions of the world.
The number
of tourist arrivals is not only the indicator to have a clear picture of the
industry. To consider the performance, financial earning is one of the major
determinants of any industry. The researcher attempted to show the financial
contribution that each of the regions have gained from the tourism sector. The
table (Table 4.5) given below shows the foreign currency earned by each region
from tourism
4.12 Foreign
Exchange Earnings from Tourism and Travels in Bangladesh
The
marketing performance of any tourism organization can be evaluated based on the
earnings by the organization. So, it was attempted to focus on the earnings of
BPC and the growth rate of the same for the last couple of years to have a
clear picture of the sector in terms of financial performance. The following
table (Table 4.11) is shows the earnings and growth rate of the same of BPC,
the only government owned tourism organization in Bangladesh:
Year
|
Earnings from Tourism
|
|
Amount (Million Tk*)
|
Growth Rate (%)
|
|
267.7
|
||
1991-92
|
391.3
|
(+)
46.17
|
1992-93
|
448.3
|
(+) 14.57
|
1993-94
|
1607.1
|
(+) 35.4
|
1994-95
|
823.6
|
(+) 35.66
|
1995-96
|
1125.4
|
(+)
36.64
|
1996-97
|
1799.7
|
(+)
59.92
|
1997-98
|
3086.9
|
(+)
71.52
|
1998-99
|
2370.1
|
(-)
23.22
|
1999-00
|
2582.7
|
(+)
8.97
|
2000-01
|
2638.1
|
(+)
2.15
|
2001-02
|
3087.1
|
(+) 17.02
|
2002-03
|
3207.4
|
(+)3.90
|
2003-04
|
3782.7
|
(+) 17.94
|
2004-05
|
4203.25
|
(+)
11.12
|
Average Growth Rate
|
(+) 24.12
|
|
Source:
Bangladesh Bank and BPC Web page, available from: http://www.bangladesht bangladeshtourism.gov.bd
/resource_center_wtar9904_03_sh2.php (accessed 30.03.06)
Though the
foreign exchange earnings through mobilizing domestic resources by the host
country’s tourism industry can play an important role in the economy, the
earning of BPC is very insignificant in terms of the overall earnings of the
said industry in the world and even in the Asian region. The earnings from
tourism in Bangladesh was Tk. 267.7 million in 1990-91 which increased to Tk.
4,203.25 million in 2004-2005. There is also a very positive sign that every
year from 1990-01 to 2004-2005 has a positive growth rate except 1998-99. The
year 1998-99 is exceptional and achieved a negative growth rate over its
preceding year may be due to devastating flood in all over the country and
which lasted about 2 months. The highest growth rate was achieved in 1997-98
which is 71.52 percent over the previous year. From the above table, comment
can be made that though Bangladesh does not have a good position in world
tourism, but the trend of growth rate in the earnings is encouraging.
4.13 Tourists Arrivals from SAARC
Countries to Bangladesh
There are
seven countries of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
including Bangladesh. As it was clear from the discussion made in the earlier
sections that the position of Bangladesh in world tourist arrivals and even is
not amazing through the industry is growing faster than in any other industry.
It was also observed that in the South Asian countries, the position of
Bangladesh is very insignificant. It was attempted to see the picture of the
tourist arrival in Bangladesh from the SAARC countries and which can be shown
in the following table (Table 4.12):
Year
|
Bhutan
|
India
|
Maldives
|
Nepal
|
Pakistan
|
Sri Lanka
|
SAARC Total
|
Total Arrivals
|
Share of SAARC Countries
|
1995
|
415
(0,65)
|
46015 (72.10)
|
94
(0.15)
|
2995
(4.69)
|
12903
(20.22)
|
1395
(2.19)
|
63817
(100,00)
|
156231
|
40.85
|
1996
|
568
(0.86)
|
53007
(80.45)
|
97
(0.15)
|
3628
(5.51)
|
7070
(10.73)
|
1522
(2.31)
|
65892
(100,00)
|
165887
|
39.72
|
1997
|
959
(1.18)
|
61606
(75.92)
|
123
(01.5)
|
5296
(6.53)
|
11481
(14.15)
|
1686
(2.08)
|
81151
(100,00)
|
182420
|
44.49
|
1998
|
441
(0.57)
|
57937
(75.26)
|
63
(0.08)
|
4799
(6.23)
|
12087
(15.70)
|
1563
(2.15)
|
76980
(100,00)
|
171961
|
44.77
|
1999
|
730
(0.93)
|
62935
(80.50)
|
53
(0.07)
|
4733
(6.05)
|
7894
(10.10)
|
1839
(2.35)
|
78184
(100,00)
|
172781
|
45.25
|
2000
|
1010
(1.09)
|
74268
(79.85)
|
189
(0.20)
|
4481
(4.82)
|
10637
(11.44)
|
2427
(2.61)
|
93012
(100,00)
|
199211
|
46.69
|
Source:
Special Branch, Bangladesh, available from: http://www.bangladeshtourism.gov.bd/statistics_saarc_
visitors.php (accessed 25.3.06)
It can be
noted that a large number of tourist visited Bangladesh is from SAARC
Countries. It is almost half of the total tourist arrivals in Bangladesh. The
share of the tourist arrivals from SAARC countries to Bangladesh was more than
40 percent from 1995 to 2003 which was decreased to 36.64 percent in 2004.
Another important issue to observe here is that most of the tourists of SAARC
countries are from India. The share of Indian tourists travelled Bangladesh
constituted 72.10 percent in 1995 which increased to 80.95 percent in 2004. The
second highest number comes from Pakistan which was 12.07 percent in 2004
followed by Nepal by 3.16 percent. 5.2 Promotional Activities Used in
Bangladesh for Tourism Marketing
BPC is the
only National Tourism Organization (NTO) in Bangladesh and acts as the public
sector tour operator and there are a few number of private tour operators. But
most of the private tour operates established newly and lack the sufficient
amount of funds. Instead of the lacks of sufficient amount of funds, both BPC
and private tour operators are trying to conduct the promotional activities in
order to attract more tourists to its destination and thus, develop the tourism
industry in Bangladesh. As we know that marketing promotion includes
advertising, Personal selling, sales promotion and publicity. All these tools
of promotion are used in promoting Bangladesh tourism.
As it was
mentioned that BPC is only the public sector tour operator in Bangladesh and
most of the private tour operators have started their operation recently, the
major promotional activities are undertaken by BPC. BPC uses all traditional
techniques to perform the responsibility of stimulating tourism demands among
the markets and promoting Bangladesh as a tourist destination through a variety
of promotional forms and activities (Hossain and Hossain, 2002). One of the major attempts of BPC’s
promotional measure is to producing and distributing printed materials
including brochures, souvenirs, booklets, guides, leaflets, posters, folders
etc. for disseminating information among the prospective markets. Including
these printed materials, a special brochure featuring its package tour and
corresponding prices, BPC distributes these with the help of different foreign
tour operators, Biman’s overseas offices, Bangladesh mission offices abroad. On
the other hand BPC produces some tourist maps, view cards, and picture post
cards and distribute through those offices at a minimum price. These printed
materials are distributed in order to disseminate the key information
highlighting the tourism attractions of Bangladesh. BPC has the arrangement for
the same in its own information centre in home country in order to provide the
information among the local people, domestic resident foreigners, and visiting
foreigners.
Personal
selling is the most expensive element of the promotion mix. Contact employees
represent the organization, physically embody the product, directly influence
customer satisfaction, and act as walking billboards from a promotional
standpoint (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003).
Therefore, BPC also trains its contact personnel and employees to ensure
better interactions with the tourists and maintain effective relations with the
tour operators and travel agencies in the tourist generating countries and thus
motivate them to sell its package programs (Hossain and Firozzaman). BPC also maintains contact with some selected
tour operators and travel agencies in some important tourist-generating
countries and sometimes organizes complementary tours for the selected foreign
tour operators to familiarize them with the tourism installations and
facilities in Bangladesh. The main objective of such arrangement is to motivate
the potential tourists to visit Bangladesh. Thus, it serves as both the
personal selling and publicity for the tourism industry of Bangladesh.
Sales
promotion activity cost money – whether through the additional cost of
printing, free gifts, extra product, samples or competition prizes; or through
the loss of contribution caused by discounting price (Norgan, 1994). BPC uses different kinds of sales promotion
techniques to persuade the visitor to choose Bangladesh as a tourist
destination. The techniques used by BPC include quantity discount, children
discount, off-season price rebate and improved service packages for it package
tours, cruise programs and accommodations.
Responding to a question, BPC executives mentioned that they normally
offer 15 to 30 percent discount during its service week and also in the
off-season. In addition, BPC offers extra services, improved services and
improved food at the existing price.
With in
marketing promotion mix elements, publicity appears to be the most useful form
of promotional measures of the BPC (Hossain and Hossain, 2002). BPC also participate in international tourism
exhibitions like the ITB at Berlin through which attractive package tours are
sold to international tour operators and a large number of individual visitors
in the fair. During tourism month (16 October – 15 November) different cultural
night shows, food festivals, seminars, symposiums, audio-visual presentations
etc are arranged mainly locally. Hasan (1992)
mentioned that BPC also attempts to publish articles featuring
Bangladesh tourism in different reputed professional magazines and tourism
related journals which also serve as publicity for the industry in Bangladesh.
BPC also
uses a web page for disseminating the information to the potential tourists.
But the fact is that the web page does not contain the complete information of
Bangladesh tourism and it related facilities. As a result, it is tough for a
potential tourist to have the required information from the said page.
In the local
market, BPC advertise in different newspapers, magazines, television and radio.
BPC also sometime advertises in some specialized and special interest
magazines. Hossain and Hossain (2002) described that BPC does not use any
international TV channels, foreign news papers, or world-class general
newsmagazines to promote Bangladesh as a tourist destination. The authors
stated the reasons of not using those media because of mainly Bangladesh
tourism products/services and facilities still require further development of
the needs of the international tourist and lack of fund to meet the cost of
those expensive media. This inability leads BPC to use the local media even
though it is very limited in scale.During the tourism season, BPC with the help
of Bangladesh Mission offices and cooperation of foreign tour operators and
film clubs arranges the audio-visual presentations on some important tourist
attractions and
facilities of the country among the potential tourists in some popular tourist
generating countries.
BPC has taken steps
for mutual cooperation through different international or organizations and
maintaining liaison with various tourism and travel trade organizations like
WTO, SARTC, ASTA, PATA etc. BPC as an active member of those organizations is
attending in different seminars, workshop in order to extending the mutual
cooperation among the member countries and trying to disseminate information
for the development of tourism industry for each country. At the same time, the
mutual cooperation among the SAARC countries has been initiated by forming a
technical committee in 1991 and adopted an action plan on tourism development.
Hasan (1988) stated that BPC has undertaken steps for mutual cooperation with
neighbouring countries, especially Nepal, for joint publicity campaign, joint
production of tourist publicity materials, joint marketing, group tours,
exchange of travel agents, travel writers, tour operators, and joint training
facilities in various services including hotels.
The above discussion
describes that promotion plays an important role in marketing of any product or
service. Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation is trying at its utmost level by using
the different form and techniques of promotional tools. But BPC’ lacks
seriously for sufficient funds and it limits the promotional activities in a
very limited scale. The following table (Table 5.1) shows the year-wise foreign
exchange earnings of BPC and promotion expenditure:
Year
|
Earnings from Tourism (TK. in Millions)
|
Promotion Expenditures (TK. in Million)
|
% of Promotion Expenditures on Earnings
|
1991-92
|
391.3
|
2.965
|
0.76%
|
1992-93
|
448.3
|
5.363
|
1.20%
|
1993-94
|
607.1
|
8.065
|
1.33%
|
1994-95
|
823.6
|
7.143
|
0.87%
|
Source: Bangladesh Bank and BPC Web page
It is apparent from the table 5.1 that BPC spend a small percentage of
its total income for promotional activities. In 1991-92, BPC spent only TK.
2.965 million which in only 0.76 percent of its total earnings. The spending
for the same purpose increased to Tk. 10.413 in 2004-05 but the percentage on
total earnings decreased to only 0.25 percent. Tk. 10.413 million is equivalent
to about US$ 158,000 only can not meet the demand for the need of expenditure
of an effective promotional measure. Because of the diverse location of the
potential tourists and the increasing competition among the different
competitive destination countries, tourism sector needs undertake vigorous
promotional activities at the national and international levels. Again, the
promotion for tourism needs to have the international coverage which requires
using international media. To use the international media for promoting any
product or service needs a handsome amount of money to spend. But it is clear
that the amount spend by BPC is not sufficient enough to use international
media covering a vast area of the potential tourist attracting regions. As a
result, Bangladesh fails to highlight its tourist attractions to the potential
tourists as well as to draw the attention and influence them to select
Bangladesh as a tourist destination. The insufficiency of the fund for
conducting promotional activities, BPC has to depend on the local media,
posters, folders, brochures, tourist maps etc.
The private tour operators also lack of sufficient fund to operate an
extensive promotional activities. As a result, they also conduct some
promotional activities in a traditional form by distributing the brochures,
leaflets, making advertisements in the local newspapers, participation of
different exhibitions arranged locally. But a limited number of private tour
operators prints and distributes their brochures in Bengali (local language),
English and Japanese languages and some other operators do the same either in
Bengal or in English or in both. There are some operators who participate in
the international tourism fairs to attract the attention and encourage the
potential tourists and try to sell package tours to the foreign tour operators
as well as to the individual tourist. This sort of participation helps to get
the media coverage in the international level. But most of the private tour
operators try to attract the local nationals and the foreign residents already
living in Bangladesh or visiting Bangladesh.
The private tour operators
also use some sorts of sales promotion like off-season price discounts, free
distribution of printed materials; organize live music programs for the
visitors in destination’s spot, extra service offers, group tour discounts for
the packages offered and river cruise programs. Hardly two or three operators
are using the web page for the promotion of the tourism in Bangladesh.
Chepter-5
5.1 Type of Promotional Activities Undertaken in Bangladesh
Tourism
All most
all the tour operators use all the tools of promotion mix in order to promote
the industry. They make the advertisements in local newspapers, magazines and
televisions. In addition to that they
also use the printed materials like brochures, souvenirs, booklet, guides and
posters, folders in disseminating information among the potential tourists in
order to draw their attention and grow interest among the potential tourists.
But they don’t use any international medium to advertise its products or services.
BPC has the arrangements to train up their employees and contact personnel to
ensure the better interactions and maintain good relationships with the
prospective tourists and to motivate them in visiting Bangladesh. BPC and some
of the larger private tour operators maintain contact with the foreign tour
operators to influence them highlight Bangladesh tourism and its facilities to
the foreign tourists. Both the private tour operators and BPC uses the
techniques of sales promotion which include quantity discount, children
discount, off-season price rebate and improved service packages for it package
tours, cruise programs and accommodations to persuade the local tourist as well
as the foreign tourists. In addition to that BPC and some private tour operators
participate at the tourism exhibition/fair arranged locally and
internationally. Occasionally, BPC arranges different cultural night shows,
food festivals, seminars, symposiums, audio-visual presentations etc. at the
popular tourism destination of the country. BPC has a web page to provide the
information of Bangladesh tourism and its facilities among the prospective
tourists though the page is not well designed.
5.2 Methods of Determining Promotion Budget
Responding
to a question on the method(s) of determining promotion budget, some
respondents express that they use more than one method in doing so. It was
found that 9 respondents use the affordable method rather than the existing
market demands in determining the promotion budget followed by 8 respondents
who uses percentage of revenue earning method. It was revealed that only 2
respondents use objectives and task method. The following table (Table 5.5)
shows the distribution of the respondents and the method used in determining
the promotion budget:
Methods
|
No. of Respondents
|
percentage
|
1. Affordable amount method
2. Percentage of revenue
earning method
3. Based on previous year’s
expense
4. Objectives and task method
5. Fixed amount method
6. Other
|
09
08
01
02
01
01
|
56.25
50.00
6.25
12.50
6.25
6.25
|
Total
|
22
|
137.50
|
Note: Total number of organizations surveyed = 16.
Some respondents responded that they use more than one method.
5.3 Comment
on the Amount Spend on Promotion
When the
respondents were asked to express their opinion whether the amount spent on
promotion on is enough or not, only 3 respondents constituting 15% strongly
agreed that the amount is sufficient. Whereas 11 respondents constituting 55%
was neutral which indicate that it is neither sufficient nor insufficient or it
may happen that the respondents have not enough idea to express their view on
this specific areas like promotion. Only 5 respondents strongly agreed that the
amount presently spend on promotion is not sufficient to conduct an effective
promotional campaign on tourism in the national and international levels. The
following table (Table 5.6) shows the distribution of respondents against each
scale and their percentage:
Scale
Respondents
|
Highly
Sufficient
(7)
|
Sufficient
(6)
|
Fairly
Sufficient
(5)
|
Neither
Sufficient
nor insufficient
(4)
|
Fairly
insufficient
(3)
|
Insufficient
(2)
|
Highly
insufficient
(1)
|
Total
|
No.
of respondents
Percentage of Respondents
|
03
15
|
01
5
|
00
00
|
11
55
|
00
00
|
00
00
|
05
25
|
20
100
|
5.4
Effectiveness of the Promotional Activities Undertaken
In
replying to a question on the effectiveness of the promotional activities that
they undertake, only 1 respondent (5%) strongly argued that their promotional
activities are effective and 4 respondents (20%) strongly opined that the same
is ineffective. But 8 respondents which is the majority constituting 40% scored
the same as average. They opined that the promotional activities presently
undertaken are neither effective nor ineffective. The following table (Table 5.7) presents the opinion of the
respondent on the effectiveness of promotional activities undertaken and
implemented by Bangladesh Tourism industry:
Respondents
|
Strongly
Effective
(7)
|
Effective
(6)
|
Fairly
Effective
(5)
|
Neither
effective nor ineffective
(4)
|
Fairly
ineffective
(3)
|
Ineffe-
ctive
(2)
|
Strongly
Ineffective
(1)
|
Total
|
No. of respondents
Percentage of Respondents
|
01
05
|
02
10
|
03
15
|
08
40
|
01
5
|
01
05
|
04
20
|
20
100
|
In an
overall comment on the promotional activities, most of the respondents opined
that they can not lunch an extensive promotional measure due to lack of
sufficient fund for this purpose and have to depend on the local media rather
than using any international medium. At the same time some of the international
media highlight Bangladesh negatively rather than a tourist destination. The
initiative from the government to correct that negative image is not
sufficient. This negative image also influences the foreign tourists not select
and visit Bangladesh.
5.5 Attitude
toward the Role of Promotional Activities
Whatever
be the present status of the promotional activities of Bangladesh tourism and
its effectiveness, most respondents (70%) think that promotion has a strong
role in marketing tourism services followed by 4 respondents (20%) were neither
agreed nor disagreed and no one was below the scale of neutrality.
Scale
Respondents
|
Strongly
Agreed
(7)
|
Agreed
(6)
|
Fairly
Agreed
(5)
|
Neither
agreed nor disagreed
(4)
|
Fairly
Disagreed (3)
|
Disag-reed
(2)
|
Strongly
Disagreed
(1)
|
Total
|
No. of respondents
Percentage of Respondents
|
14
70
|
01
5
|
01
5
|
04
20
|
00
00
|
00
00
|
00
00
|
20
100
|
70% of the
respondents strongly believe that promotional measures can play strong role to
attract tourists to the tourist destination and the mean score of which is
6.25. The mean score on the point whether the promotional expenditure is
sufficient or not is 3.8 which is close to 4.00 or a minor below the average
mean score. It is interesting to note that only one respondent (5%) consider
that their promotional activities launched is effective. The mean score (3.75)
indicates that their promotional measures are not effective. But the mean score
of respondents’ responses regarding the sufficiency of the promotional
expenditure is very close to the scale of neutral and at the same time again
they argued that more promotional efforts are needed for the tourism of
Bangladesh and its mean score is 6.40 which is very contradictory. Because when
the promotion expenditure is close to sufficient there may not have the need of
more promotional measures or otherwise the budget is not sufficient.
5.6 Suggestions from the Tour Operators
The
respondents were requested to express their opinion about the steps those
should be undertaken to attract more tourists. The summary of their suggestions
are as:
Measures undertaken to attract foreign
tourists
|
Measures undertaken to attract local
tourists
|
1. Participate in international tourism fairs
2. Uses Bangladesh mission abroad
3. Contracting international tour operators
4. Distributing brochures and tourist hand
books
5.
Uses of well-designed website
|
|
The
respondents both from the National Tourism Organization (BPC) in Bangladesh and
from the private tour operators in Bangladesh were requested to put forward
some suggestions for the Development of Bangladesh Tourism. Their suggestions
can be presented in a summarised form in the following table (table 5.13):
Suggestion
from Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation
|
Suggestion
from Private Tour Operators
|
1. Need to develop new attractions/ products or
services in the destinations.
2. More promotional activities should be undertaken
3. Should develop and update an attractive web site
to provide the required information to the potential tourists.
4. Government should priotize this sector for
development plan.
5. Security of the tourists should be
ensured.
6. BPC should have full autonomy to take
necessary decision timely
|
1. Infrastructural development
is needed.
2. Developing new products or
services in the destinations.
3. Well designed website is
needed
4. Foreign mission should be
involved in promotional activities.
5. Law and order situation
should be developed.
6. Need coordinated promotion
activities by NTO and other parties involved.
7. Govt support to the private
tour operators is necessary for the development of this sector.
8. Tax
holiday for vehicles is necessary for minimizing cost of operation.
|
Chapter-6 Recommendations and Conclusion
6.1
Introduction
Tourism is now a fastest growing industry in the world. The growth of
the same in the Asia and the Pacific region is more accelerating than any other
region. The ever increasing growth of this industry and its market has increased
the competition among the tourists importing countries. As a result, the
success of any destination country depends on how well it can initiate and
adopt the competitive marketing strategy over its competitors. Promotion is one
of the most important elements of the marketing mix through which the
attractions of the destinations and its facilities are focussed to the
potential tourists to draw their attention and grow interest among them to
visit the sponsor’s destination. It sates that the destination country needs to
take the effective promotional measures so that they can gain the positive
result through attracting more tourists to its destination. The present study
revealed that Bangladesh is also trying to attract more tourists to its
destination through different measures. But the country lacks far behind to
conduct the appropriate and sufficient measures regarding the promotional
measures. The resultant effect is that Bangladesh could not achieve significant
progress to develop the industry though the number of tourist arrivals and the
earnings from this industry show a positive growth rate. The position of
Bangladesh tourism in world context is very negligible even the country’s
position is at the bottom line in the South Asian region. Among the seven
countries of SAARC in this region, Bangladesh holds the 6th position
just above the position of Bhutan. But the country has some unique attractions
like world’s longest and unbroken sea beach, world’s largest mangrove forest
with a variety of wildlives, historical cultural heritage, tribal culture,
captivating beauty of the nature etc. One of the reasons of not succeeding
Bangladesh tourism is insufficient promotional measures undertaken for
marketing the said sector. So, it is essential for the policy makers of the
concern industry to consider the issue very carefully and on the priority basis
for the expected development of the industry.
6.2 Recommendations for Managerial Implications
Based on
the findings of the study and the researcher’s experience the following
suggestions can be put forwarded for the managerial implication to improve the
promotion of this industry in Bangladesh:
I. Correcting the Image of the Country
The image
of the destination plays a vital role to attract tourists to that particular
destination. But Bangladesh is suffering from the image problem because of some
international media. These media highlight Bangladesh negatively which results
to create misconception among the potential tourists. Even some Non Government
Organizations (NGOs) do the same thing in order to collect funds by
highlighting the country as a dreadfully poor, flood ravaged, pestilence and
means there is nothing to be in a country to consider as a tourist destination.
As a result, many foreigners do not choose Bangladesh as a tourist destination
because of either they don’t have enough idea about the country and its tourism
attractions and facilities or what they have is negative. To some extent, it
may be partially true but is not the fact as a whole. Once someone visits the
country his/her perceived image is changed. So, Bangladesh tourism should
emphasize first on its promotional measures to correct this negative image. But
it is not only the issue to be solved by Bangladesh tourism authority; it
requires the government’s initiative as a whole and the Bangladesh Mission
offices abroad have a major role in this regard. As Bangladesh tourism industry
has not enough funds to use to international media for correcting this negative
image, it should emphasize on the printed materials and to distribute it to the
potential tourists through different airlines, foreign tour operators and foreign mission abroad etc.
II. Ensuring the
Security of the Tourists
Security at the
destination place is considered as one of the major factors for the foreign
tourists. Because of every tourist gives the high priority on security to
select a foreign country as a tourist destination. Therefore, the question of
adequate security to the tourists during their visit is also very important
(Nurunnabi, 1995). The tourists need to
be fear free in visiting a place especially when it is outside their home
country. The government of Bangladesh should improve the security in the major
tourist areas with a view to correct Bangladesh’s tarnished image. Any sort of
risk and uncertainty related to the destination will lead the tourists not to
select that particular destination. Promotional measures can remove these sorts
of fear, risk, harassment or cheating.
III. Use of Information
Technology in Promotional in Promotional Activity
The recent change and
progress in information technology have a revolutionary impact on tourism
industry. Because of travel and tourism-related products and services are
highly compatible with the Internet and the rapid growth of the Internet is
having an impact on the distribution of travel services and has heightened
speculation about the potential for disintermediation of the travel agent (Bennett
and Lai, 2005). Again, the international
tourism system is dependant on information technology for its future growth,
competitiveness and long-term survival - particularly in terms of tourism
marketing and distribution (Morgan et al, 2001). It is considered that who are able to access
more information and make use of it are likely to be the winner in the
competitive environment. In promoting the tourism industry of any country, the
Internet can play the leading role to facilitate information exchange
internationally. In addition to that World Wide Web (WWW) is the most popular
application on the Internet which can be used effectively for the many purpose
of tourism marketing including direct sales, advertisement, customer support,
etc. Bangladesh tourism authority must consider the effective use of this
technology for the promotional activity of this industry. It is worth
mentioning here that though BPC has its own web page, it should be well
designed containing all the necessary information.
IV. Promoting to Some
Specific Regions as Bangladesh
tourism is at the early
development stage, the country should target a specific number of countries
from where the country can generate more tourists rather than targeting the
whole market areas. At least by targeting five more prospective tourist
generating countries, the country can undertake more promotional activities to
those countries so that a larger number of tourists can be attracted. Even to
those countries, Bangladesh can launch heavy promotional activities by using
different tools of promotion. If the industry wants to attract more foreign
tourists, it needs to publish some creative advertisement in some specific
travel guides, magazines, and specialized professional journals that the
potential tourists, overseas tour operators, travel agents, and travel writers
read (Hossain and Firozzaman, 2003). The
authors described that tourist customers are more likely to respond to the
creative advertising message projected through specialized and appropriate
media vehicles. Then they urged that that the extent of success in appealing to
a particular market segment or encouraging them to visit the destination(s)
depends upon the right choice of advertising media and thus the choice of media
is an important decision for the marketers of the tourism industry.
V. Allocation of more
Promotional Funds
Bangladesh don’t have
that level of capability to compete with the world’s top tourist generating
countries, but it has the capability to compete with the member countries of
SAARC or at least some other small countries of SAARC except India. To compete with
these countries, needs to conduct more promotional measures. But what the
amount is allocating presently for this purpose is not sufficient. Though the
country has not enough financial capabilities, but it can easily increase it
promotional budget up to 4 or 5 percent of it total earnings from this sector.
In addition to that the authority should have a plan for the effective use of
the promotional budget. Because of it will again help to increase the earnings
by attracting more tourists.
VI. Use of Foreign Tour
Operators to Promote Bangladesh as a tourist Destination
Foreign
tour operators can play an important role to in motivating the potential
tourists to a specific tourist destination. BPC and the private tour operators
of Bangladesh can maintain the contact and liaison with the foreign tour
operators and to influence them to send more tourists to Bangladesh. Even
foreign tour operators can be used to distribute the brochure, souvenirs, and
tourists’ maps of Bangladesh tourism. For this purpose they need to have some
incentives. Bangladesh can sell package tours through foreign tour operators
where they receive a handsome amount of discount.
VII. More Discounted
Offer for a Group Tour and Long Stay
Bangladesh can attract
more tourists by offering more discounts on group tours and long stay
visits. For example, discount on air
tickets, hotel rents, discounted price of local transport arranged by the tour
operators etc. National airlines have a major role in this regards. Since the
position of the national airlines of Bangladesh is not so good, the country can
make the mutual arrangement on some selected international airlines. In
addition to that the tourism authority should offer more off-season discounts,
students discount, SAARC tour rebate etc to motivate the potential tourists to
visit Bangladesh. At the same time, steps should be taken to attract the local
tourists to travel more in a number and frequent visit of different tourism
spots of the country.
VIII. Cooperation among
the Neighbouring Countries is needed
The SAARC countries
can co-operate each other for the development of tourism in this region. Each
country can be benefited through building and maintaining a meaningful
cooperation among the SAARC countries’ tour operators, travel agencies, tourist
organizations etc. This region can undertake the promotional activities jointly
to identify and highlight the tourist spot of the SAARC countries. Again the
bi-lateral co-operation between any two countries of the same region can help both
the participants in developing the sector.
IX. Developing Infrastructure Facilities
and Diversified Products/Services
The present
infrastructural facilities of tourism in Bangladesh are not up to the standard
of international level. There need to develop more hotels, motels, restaurants,
and internal transport for the easy access to the spots. At the same time, the
tourism authority needs to take the necessary steps for diversify the products
or services. For example, introducing new river, lake and sea cruising,
Bangladesh can have a bonanza in tourism industry. Before going to advertise in
the international media, the country needs to develop these facilities.
X.
Encouraging More Private Sector Investment
Bangladesh tourism
industry needs for heavy investment in order to develop infrastructure
facilities and promotional measures. Since the government is not in a position
to fulfil the needs of this heavy investment due to resource constraint, the
government should consider promoting private sector investment both from
domestic and foreign investors in order to develop and promote the tourism
industry in Bangladesh. To encourage the private investment, the government
should declare some incentives to the private investors. The incentives like
tax holiday for a certain period on their return, tax free import of vehicles
for using in tourism, arrangement of loans at a lower rate of interest,
providing physical facilities etc. can be considered favourably for this
purpose. A revised tax holiday for the
hotel industry will provide incentives for the construction of new units and
motivate the tourists to stay longer period (Hossain and Firozzaman, 2003). The authors emphasized that tax holiday for
accomodation units is necessary as the room rent in Bangladesh is very high. In
addition to this, the professional tourism institution of learning should be
expanded if possible and the private sector should be encouraged to operate
with concessions from the government of Bangladesh.
XI. Coordination among the Different
Related Sectors
Bangladesh tourism
industry needs the coordinated efforts and promotional activities among the
parties involved in this industry. Both the government sector and private
sector tour operators should take the joint programs in developing the
industry. As tourism is a multifaceted industry, there should have some
coordination among the tour operators, hoteliers, airlines, local transport
authorities and other service provider so that their coordinated efforts can be
fruitful. Again, there should have the necessary coordination among the
concerned ministries like ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Home, Foreign
Affairs, Transport and Health so that the visit of the tourists can be made safer,
healthier and enjoyable.
6.3 Conclusion
The significance of
tourism is viewed from many angles like economic, social, cultural, political,
etc. Tourism is now the fastest growing and single largest industry in the
world. The industry has attained the impressive growth in the world-wide in
terms of tourist arrivals and foreign exchange earnings which has led the ever
increasing competition among the destination countries and gained the top
priority in most of the destination countries. Every destination country is
trying to attract more tourists by drawing the attention and growing the
interest among the potential tourists through adopting effective marketing
strategies. Promotion is an important element of marketing mix and plays a
vital role in developing marketing strategies. Because of tourism is a field
where the customers/tourists want to know in advance about the attractions and
facilities of the destination. Marketers need to provide such necessary
information to the prospective tourists through different promotional measures
and thus, try to motivate and attract them to the sponsor’s destination.
Though the growth of
tourism is impressive world-wide, the same in Bangladesh is not so. It is not
because of lack of eye-catching tourist’s attraction to the destination of
Bangladesh, rather it is the result of inadequate promotional measures.
Bangladesh failed to market its incredible tourist attractions like world
longest unbroken sea beach, covering miles of golden sands, soaring cliffs,
surfing waves, rare conch shells, Buddhist Temples, Pagodas and enjoyable
sea-food all of which are almost impossible to be found in any where of the
other tourist destinations of the world; the world’s largest mangrove forests
is formed at the delta of the Ganges, cultural heritage, pristine beauty of the
nature etc. and leads to attract an insignificant number of tourists to its
destination. The contribution of Bangladesh tourism to the world tourism is
very negligible. Even the position of the country among the SAARC countries is
at the bottom line. It holds the position just above the position of Bhutan. As
a result, the contribution of tourism in the economy of Bangladesh is very
insignificant.
The existing
literatures also show that Bangladesh tourism fails to attract more tourists
and not succeeded in developing the sector up to its expectation mainly due to
inadequate promotional activities. Though the international media can be
effective for drawing the attention of the potential foreign tourists but it is
expensive to use the same for promoting the tourism in Bangladesh. As the
country has the fund constraint, it has to depend on the local media and on
some low qualitative printed materials to promote the sector which do not
result positively to achieve the goal from this industry. The use of
information technology in promoting Bangladesh tourism is very negligible. The
web page presently used by Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation is not well-designed
and attractive and cannot disseminate all the necessary information to the
prospective tourists.
Bangladesh tourism
also needs to attempt more promotional activities to cope up with the present
competition among the destination countries. The country can arrange the more
tourist fairs with in the country to attract local tourists and also the
foreigners who are already living in Bangladesh. Advertisement in the local
newspapers and the distribution of different printed materials related to
Bangladesh tourism may help to serve the purpose. In addition, participation in
the international tourism fairs, distribution of different types of high
quality printed materials among the potential foreign tourists; advertisement
in some of the international newspapers covering at least the major tourists
generating countries to Bangladesh etc. can be more fruitful for the promotion
of the same in Bangladesh. The foreign mission offices abroad of Bangladesh can
take the initiatives for encouraging the people to visit Bangladesh. The mutual
arrangements with some selected foreign tour operators and providing them
incentives can produce more positive result in attracting tourists to the
destination of Bangladesh.
Since the potential
tourists need the information regarding the destination’s attraction and
facilities in advance, uses of information technology can help to a greater
extent to disseminate the information among the prospective tourists.
Bangladesh tourism can take the initiatives to update its present web page in a
well-designed form so that the prospective tourists can get all the necessary
information from the page easily. There should have sufficient online
facilities so that all bookings related to tourism can be made through online.
There should have some attractive offers like discounted air tickets, discount
on hotel rent etc for a group visit and for a longer period visit. All these
will play the motivational role for the potential tourists to select Bangladesh
as a tourist destination.
6.4. Direction for Further Research
This research was
carried out to find out the use of promotional activities in tourism by
emphasizing on the context of Bangladesh. It is tough to conduct the research
on a vast area like tourism with the time frame allocated for the study. As a
result, the tourist opinion from the field survey could not be used. There
remains further scope to conduct the study as the replication of the present
study. For example, to have in depth picture of the tourists’ opinion they can
be interviewed. A comparative study can be done among the cost of visiting the
destinations of different regions from the same place of origin. Because of in
addition to attractions, the cost for travelling is an important element in
choosing the destination place or it can be compared the promotional strategies
used by the successful destinations especially the countries in the Asian
regions to prescribe the more suitable strategy for the same of
Bangladesh.
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