Tasnia Isbat |
Published:
Jan 25 2023 19:57:16
The beauty and prestigious past of Bangladesh has always attracted tourists, anthropologists and archaeologists. Economically, tourism is undoubtedly an important sector responsible for the growth of Bangladesh’s economy. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the sector contributes about 3.02 percent to Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP). Each district of Bangladesh has its own natural resources and historical heritage. Bangladesh has a combination of hills, sea beaches and forestry. Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet, Tangail and Chittagong are the districts with famous tourist spots. The beautiful hills of Chittagong, with many natural springs, have recently become one of the most visited tourist destinations for adventurous youngsters.
However, from an environmental perspective, tourism has a certain negative relationship with environmental pollution. Therefore, the focal point here is how tourism as an asset to the economy can negatively impact the environment and how through the implementation of sound policies the government can turn tourism into a green industry.
First, 16.4 lakh tourists visited Bangladesh in 2018-19 as per BBS data. Most tourists prefer to travel by air, which causes more pollution than most other vehicles. In addition, tourists spend significant amounts on food consumption, accommodation and transportation. These sectors are also capable of significantly damaging the environment if they are not built and operated in an environmentally friendly manner. Also, to accommodate these tourists, many luxury hotels and resorts have been set up around tourist spots, destroying the ecosystem of those places. Their spending contributes to our gross domestic product (GDP) and drives the economy, but often has an impact on the environment. For example, Abdus Salam – director of the environment department and senior chemist in Gazipur districts – confirmed that no resort in Gazipur has a permit certificate, which is required under Section 12 of the Bangladesh Conservation Act. Sal forest in Gazipur is a protected forest. For tourism operators, who are usually private businesses, the priority is profit maximization – even at the expense of causing environmental destruction. So tourism can be negatively related to environmental protection.
According to the BBS report, only about 20 percent of the tourists who come to Bangladesh are foreigners. If the goal is to attract more foreigners, then the focus should be on protecting the environment, not just using it as a selling point for luxury resorts that are destroying the environment. Hiking, camping, snorkeling, deep-sea diving, and fishing are popular among foreigners and do not negatively impact the environment. In addition, the government should increase social security so that foreigners do not have to stay in luxury resorts. The government can encourage local residents to host overseas tourists and help them have an authentic wilderness experience.
Second, tourists who visit countries with high air pollution may encounter many cardiovascular diseases. Generally, if tourists come from an environment without polluted air to a polluted environment, then they are more likely to face cardiovascular diseases and respiratory problems. The journal Travel Medicine mentions research done in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, as these cities have higher concentrations of polluted air. To conduct this research, hospital emergency centers were visited and it showed that short exposure to polluted air caused more cardiovascular disease among tourists. From the air pollution tracker app, we learned that all tourist destinations in Bangladesh have ‘unhealthy’ air conditions which can be quite fatal for travelers who are exposed to unhealthy air. Moreover, the climatic conditions of Dhaka according to Table 1 are “hazardous”, so those who visit Dhaka for only a few days face more adverse consequences because they do not have any adaptive mechanisms in their body.
To solve this conundrum, we can choose the carrot and the stick method to promote tourism without damaging the environment. Here, the carrot refers to incentives and the stick refers to strict policies such as tourism taxation. We need to start with the bottom-up approach where changes can be made from a micro level. This is the “carrot approach” where incentives can be provided for people to participate in environmental protection. Such an initiative which goes by the name “Food for Plastic” was undertaken by the Bidyanondo Foundation and the news was published in the print media recently. With this program, they encouraged local residents to collect plastic waste and in return provided them with food that helped them clean up the plastic waste on the island of St. Martin. This type of program can also be undertaken by the government.
It is also important to implement a tourist tax. Countries such as Malaysia and the Netherlands apply a tourist tax. This tax can be collected by the hotels. Tourists will have to pay tourist tax in the form of municipal taxes at the hotels where they stay. Another way of collecting this tax is from the accommodation of the water vehicles. This method can be applied to the beaches and riverside places where a system of accommodation is established, such as in the Sundarbans and in the Barisal shoots.
According to the BBS report, 80 percent of the tourists who visit Bangladesh are non-residents of Bangladesh. This shows that we have few foreigners as tourists. If the government can introduce the tourism tax and then use the tax revenue to improve the environmental status of tourist attractions, then more foreigners will be attracted.
Finally, it is important that the government designs policies in a way that ensures the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For example, tourists can be encouraged to avoid frequent air travel and use public transport instead. To encourage the use of public transport, Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) can expand its bus services with better facilities and reduced fares in tourist regions.
In conclusion, the tourism industry is very beneficial for the progress of Bangladesh. However, this has a negative impact on the environment in our country. Apart from the way tourism affects the environment in Bangladesh, travelers also face serious health problems due to the polluted air of most tourist destinations. Appropriate policy measures are therefore mandatory to make our tourism industry both economically stimulating and environmentally friendly.
Tasnia Isbat is studying BA in Economics at BRAC University. [email protected] and [email protected]