An Evaluative Study of Development and Impact on Maritime and Coastal Tourism

Abstract

Tourism has become a very important and dynamic sector in the developing countries. Maritime and coastal tourism comprises the major figure of tourism in any countries. For the last two decades coastal tourisrn flouished very.fast in the developing countries. Bangladesh is full of natural beauty. Rivers, coasts and beaches, mangrove.forests, coral reefs, lagoons, waterfalls etc surround it. In 2012, around 6 hundred thousand touists came Bangladesh to vtsit and enjoy its beauty. The total contribution of tourism to GDP was 4.4o% in 2013. Bangladesh has notyet got a better position in this industty in comparison to her neighbors especially in coastal tourism sector. Though Bangladesh got all the potentials to flourish but coastql tourism in the country has been growing at a very slow pace. Bangladesh has failed to tntroduce her as a coastql and maritime tourist destination country in the international tourist market. The major concetn of this article is to highlight the factors by which Bangladesh can be one of the major coastal tourtst attractive countries in the world in'nearfuture. Proper arrangement ofcruise ship, branding ofcoastal places in Bangladesh, security development in coastal places, engagement of coastal people in developing integrated coastal tourism etc. are recommended in this article.