Will love to visit Myanmar these coming years. Guess I need to put Myanmar in my upcoming Asian tour (Vietnam is already on my list. )
also there recent reform has helped too, people just want to know what the hermit hides
I think te boast in tourism could be related to Top gear, a lot of people watch top gear, in America, the UK and Australia.
@alaungphaya bro arrr yin d thread htal lar p help par oo naw... E kya bro lout m kg lo par... Thz bro..
So how about BD's tourism industry..?
According to this... Not so bad...
News Report Tourist arrival dropped 50 per cent in 2013 as the country passed through political violence, frequent hatals and uncertainty giving a negative image to tourists about the country, sources said. Though tourist arrival posted more than 50 per cent drop in 2013, earnings recorded over 20 per cent growth during the same year, sources in the Bangladesh Bank (BB) and Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) said. The earnings from the tourism sector stood at 121.5 million US dollars in 2013 compared to 100.75 million US dollars in 2012. The tourist arrival in Bangladesh in 2013 was 278, 780 as against 588,193 in 2012, according to BPC. India topped the list of tourist arrival in 2013 with a total number of 57,188, followed by 43,820 British, 18,444 Chinese, 10,23 Canadian, 9,535 Japanese and 7,809 Australian nationals in 2013. In 2012, India topped the list of tourist arrival with a total number of 160,240, followed by 83,100 British, 30,944 Chinese, 20,215 Canadian, 17,914 Japanese and 16,762 Australian nationals. The growth of the tourism industry suffered a setback in terms of tourist arrival last year as the country witnessed political unrest and frequent violent hartal that claimed several hundred lives countrywide, said some tour operators. The 19-party alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), called series of hartals throughout the year. The earnings from the tourism sector posted 20.46 per cent growth in 2012. The earnings from the tourism sector stood at 100.75 million US dollars in 2012 as against 83.73 million US dollars in 2011. The tourism sector posted negative growth in 2009 and 2010 and a measure of 5.50 per cent in 2011. Only the sector grew 16.79 per cent, the second highest growth in the last 10 years, according to BB statistics. While talking to this correspondent, Hakim Ali, President of Bangladesh Foundation for Tourism Development (BFTD) said tourism sector can generate 500 million US dollars per year provided the government launched a massive drive to popularize the sector with special fund. Quoting Bangladesh Bank statistics, Hakim Ali said Bangladesh earned $100m as revenue from tourism sector in 2012. Hakim Ali, also managing director of Hotel Agrabad, said the country's tourism sector got 5.28 lakh foreign tourists and 50 lakh domestic tourists in 2012. Rezaul Karim, Executive Director, BFTD, said, Bangladesh can easily earn 2.00-3.00 billion US dollars per year by targeting foreign tourists. Laying emphasis on inbound tourists, he said the number of outbound tourists is much higher than the number of inbound tourists. He said 100,000 Bangladeshis every year visit Malaysia, 5,00,000 visit India, 80,000 visit Singapore and 70,000 visit Thailand spending several billion dollars a year. Manzur Murshed, President of the Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB), said the country lost foreign currency from tourists due to the political turmoil last year. "They [tourists] were concerned about their safety and security," he said. "We had been badly hit by volatile political situation last year," Taufiq Uddin Ahmed, President of Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB), said. Bengal Tours, a leading inbound tour operator, had around 100 visitors from Europe and Japan were due in between October and the first week of November of last year but all of them abandoned their planned trips, according to Masud Hossain, the company's executive director.
Tourists arrival plummets
Indeed it's not soo bad, I would have told you my opinions as to why there may be an increase and decrease in Bangladesh tourist numbers, but this article summed it up, I'm glad you found it.
There are plans by India's Northeast to create a tourist circuit with Bangladesh and Myanmar, there are plans to promote history, heritage an culture in the area, most notably world war sites, budhist sites, etc. I think this can definitely help boast regional tourism in the three countries. There is also the BCIM EC which can boost tourism too. Bangladesh also submitted a proposal to the chinese government of opening a new passage way to kumming through myanmar from chittagong via cox's bazar. As our relations improve (and both the countries get over the rohingya issue) than we can see tourist from Myanmar visiting Bangladesh, and Myanmar visiting Bangladesh.
A list of tourist spots and potential tourist spots in Bangladesh.
Cox's Bazaar (The longest natural sand beach in the world) There needs to be planned development in the district in my opinion, there has been proposal to set up an ETZ = Exclusive tourism zone in the sabrang area, Opposite myanmar. ^^)
Kuakata (One of the only beaches in the world, where you can see both sunrise and sunset, there has been a proposal to set up an ETZ here too)
Sundurbans (The largest mangrove forest in the world, home to the royal bengal tiger)
Chittagong Hill tracts (the rooftop of Bangladesh,)
Tanguar haor (The mother fishery, to experts, it is known as one of the most beautiful and best scenic spots to view birds.)
I'm just eating I'll complete the list after I've finished eating.
Somapura Mahavihara (Unesoc world heritage site, and among one of the most known viharas in the world. It was home to many buddhist intellectuals during its use. It is also the biggest buddhist vihara to be built south of the himalayas and had a huge influence on buddhist architecture in myanmar, cambodia, laos etc)
Pahapur (An ancient buddhist city that surrounds the monastery mention above)
Jaggadala Vihara (another vihara of the five that where built. This one is in ruin but it is close and still beautiful)
Halud Vihara, (not one of the great 5 viharas, but still culturally important)
Mahasthangarh and it's environs, (another ancient buddhist city, used by both hindus and muslims too)
The lalmai-mainmati group of monumets (ancient buddhist site, a beautiful one too)
Sonargaon/ panam city. (The Golden village/city was once the city of muslin. it is a beautiful ancient capital.)
Wari Bateshwar (The settlement today, may have been the earliest signs of coinage/currency usage in the world.)
The mosque city of Bagherat (Known by many as 'the mint city' it boast fine islamic architecture, in a traditional begnali style)
Many hindu temples here too.
I can tell you, buddhist like yourself would definitely love Bangladesh, there's a lot of buddhist sites here and more to be discovered by our archaeological departments,
I hope bangladesh and myanmar can soon prosper, soon maybe BD and Myanmar will be best freinds and our countries people will come over to each other countries.
Below is Somapura Mahavihara
Below is what it would have looked like if it was still in tact and survived.
...
We welcome you with open hands.
I believe our tourism industry can be a top foreign currency earner and apparently I'm not the only Bangladeshi to think this, according to menon - "Tourism industry can make the highest contribution to the country's economy by surpassing garments sector, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon has said." I believe this to be true too.
Menon: Tourism can be top foreign currency earner | Dhaka Tribune
However of course there are things that hamper our development. A few things that hamper our development...
Lack of investment, there is lack of investment from both public and private sector to make tourism a sustainable sector.
imagery of the country, this applies to both domestic and international news papers who report on Bangladesh, normally when something positive is happening, many western outlets wont report upon it however when something negative happens, rana plaza, sundurban oil spill, a lot of western news paper will report on it, this makes our country look bad. (I've only seen the Guardian report positive staff about Bangladesh, only the Guardian)
Religion, I think Americas wars/campagins against countries such as afghanistan and Iraq has helped stem this fear of muslims into westerners, I think people automatically associate muslims with terrorism now that, thats how the media over the portrays and hence people are likely to come to Bangladesh, a largely muslim country, which is also secular. (I can tell, we have youth who don't care much about the faith anymore, the country is becoming increasingly open minded, and people just aren't seeing it.)
Now, can it happen? Yes I believe soo.
Lack of Investment, Bangladesh has attracted a lot of investment from big names and big countries through various sectors. We have russians coming over to help us build a satellite (and launch it), russians gazprom has also signed a deal for a nuclear power plant in the country. We have chinese making headway into our country through the padma bridge construction, which they are building, chinese are increasingly investing in our country and want to help build the biggest sea port in south asia, Sonadia deep sea port. Indians are here too, building power stations, opening factories etc.) So I question why can we attract investors our tourism industry. I question this, what's the point of attracting loads of international hotels to come to Bangladesh (which it has done exceptionally well) when there is nothing else to offer, like theme parks, and other attractions. The hotels are a problem too, as they are mainly in big cities such as Dhaka and Chittagong. we need rules and regulations to be put into place to direct investment towards perserving our history, heritage and culture and making new attractions which can get international attention.)
Imagery of the country is being slowly challenged by our youth. Lovedesh.com is run by yasmin choudary and her goal is to present 3rd world countries in a positive light, she started as a website/blogger and now runs a tour operation business, where she sells packages to these countries, her main priority being Bangladesh, there is also the positivelight.Bangladesh campaign, which is a crowdsourced website, where Bangladeshis can post photos of Bangladesh and get it seen by the masses, they've nearly raised enough money, for a book.
Religion, we know religion can play a big and small facotr, but it really depends on the people, and their country, and what it has to offer, look at Egypt, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, these are some of the hottest destinations for travellers and have been for a while, so I beg the question, why can'y Bangladeshi, if these muslim majority countries have a thriving sector, why can't we? I just read last week, Egypt and Greece signed a tourism partnership/circuit sort of thing where both countries will aid each other in promoting each others country, this is beneficial to both the countries, because of both the countries economic and political situation (which is bad) and I'm just like, why can't we have this with India and Myanmar... I thinks it's that lack or foreign relations between our country that doesn't allow the industry to flourish. We need a better SAARC and ASEAN for our area. Note: There has been many ideas put forward to intergrate our region, nepalis have asked for it, north eastern indians have asked for it.
Promoting inter-regional tourism | EDITORIAL | Financial Express :: Financial Newspaper of Bangladesh
I've actually been following Myanmar tourism industry for a while now. I think once India and Myanmar prospers, than Bangladesh will follow suit, all countries around Bangladesh have somewhat of a thriving tourism sector, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, India and now Myanmar, it saddens me to see Bangladesh not flourishing as much as it's counterparts in the region, where not jumping aboard... But I think that will slowly change
I would like to congratulate Myanmar on it's boom of tourism 2-3 bln earned this (last) year alone, wow. I heard many australians and thais are coming to your country, that's great. I think Bangladesh needs to attract tourist from our region first before it can go international.
Somethings I would like to see happening between Bangladesh and Myanmar, Better cooperation in all sections, including Tourism.
A ferry route from Bangkok, via, yangon and than too coxs baxar or kuakata. An inland route (road.train) similar to this ferry route.
A buddhist tourism circuit, which involves India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand.
A bridge from Cox's bazar to Maungdaw.
I'd like to also see an ease of Visa restrictions, and products restrictions and freedom of momment rules and regulations from our countries.
Imagine this, a tour package from Bagan, to Coxs bazar, people can take in the culture of Myanmar and than take in the culture of Bangladesh and relax.
all in all,
We need better investment, promotion and more tolerance towards tourists. When all of this happens our industry is bound to flourish, I mean look at your industry, it's a fine example of how to attract tourists.
Then we need closer ties between 2 nations.., especially G to G..
