The flow of traveling in groups or large scale is decreasing as the health issue is getting serious priority. In that case, the trend of village, forest or water-centric tourism will increase more than the artificial places where people gathering is less than others and the marine tourism will be considered a major component of the blue-economy in the whole world. Moreover, due to financial constraints, tourists will look for relatively low-cost destinations, excluding large and expensive tourist destinations. In this regard, the villages can wait with a big potential for tourism in Bangladesh. Therefore, the idea of rural tourism has to be implemented very quickly.
This was stated by the speakers at a virtual seminar on “The Barriers to Rural Tourism Development : Keys to Overcome”. The seminar was organized by the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Islamic University (IU) on Tuesday on the occasion of World Tourism Day.
In the seminar, the speakers highlighted the way to overcome the obstacles in the development of rural tourism. At the same time, mentioned how tourism can creates opportunities for the empowerment and employment of rural people (especially women and youth) around the world.
They said tourism helps in highlighting rural culture and traditions in various ways.
Jabed Ahmed, CEO of Bangladesh Tourism Board was the chief guest in the seminar.
In the chair of Mahbubul Arfin, chairman at the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, IU, the seminar was addressed among others by Professor Dr. Badruzzaman Bhuiyan, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Dhaka University, Prof. Dr. Enayet Hossain, chairman at the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Rajshahi University and the editor & Publisher of Bangla daily The Dainik Kushtia and The Kushtia Times also writer, researcher Dr. Amanur Aman.
The programme was conducted by Shariful Islam Jewel, Lecturer of the Department. More than two hundred students of three academic years of the department took part in the webinar.
Speaking as chief guest, Jabed Ahmed, CEO of Bangladesh Tourism Board, said, “To develop the tourism sector in Bangladesh, local manpower must be involved. And it is possible to take the country’s tourism sector forward only through the development of rural tourism. He said the board is working on this.
Prof. Mahbubul Arfin said, “We also need to think about rural tourism to take the tourism sector forward. This sector has a potentiality to contribute the country's economy. He also expressed hope that the students of the tourism department would make an invaluable contribution to the tourism sector in the future.