In these modern times,
Tourism & hospitality has appeared to be one of the most money grossing
industries. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, demand for
international tourism is being remained very high in the first four months of
2014. International sightseer arrivals globally have jumped up by 5%, the same
rate as throughout the full year 2013. Prospects for the current peak, tourism
season remains very positive with more than 460 million travelers were expected
to travel in a foreign country during the May-August 2014 phase [1]. And
whilst, tourism revenue in Spain peaked to US$ 79.13 billion in 2013, then the
international tourist arrivals in the Middle East are estimated to be down by
4% in turn which indicates this region has suffered a fall in tourism revenue
then, though this figure should be taken with caution as it is based on limited
available data for the region [1], [2]. It is to mark here, when Middle East
has lost its’ revenues from tourism sector verily at that moment outbound
expenditure by tourists has lifted up more than 18% while visiting Qatar [3].
In spite, Qatar is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the
world, and the country's exports of LNG, crude oil, & petroleum products
provide a significant portion of government revenues but its’ recently taken
policies are intended to switch main revenue collection from this sector to
tourism sector gradually [4].
This implicates for
tourism sector’s sustaining appearance, every country either that is developed
or emerging or underdeveloped, has started formulating some sorts of policies
to support & widen this sector as they have already evaluated that tourism
industry has immense effect on an economy by fetching a significant amount of
foreign currency in regular basis. Hence, the demand for improvement of tourism
sector, across the countries has become common for luring visitors. If we look
at our country Bangladesh, we discover that the direct contribution of Travel
& Tourism industry to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013 was BDT 222.6 billion
(2.1% of GDP) & this is forecast to increase by 7.7% to BDT 239.8 billion in
2014 [5]. In addition, Travel & Tourism created 1,328,500 jobs directly in
2013 (1.8% of total employment) & it is forecast to rise by 4.0% in 2014
to 1,381,500. From these phenomena it is crystal clear that how important tourism
sector is for Bangladesh. But there is another side of the coin, i.e., tourist’s
motive of dropping poly-bags, plastic bottles or making noises, smoking here
& there, cutting down & taking away coral reefs etc are causing high environmental pollution [6] [7]. Unfortunately conventional government policies & private-public initiative program to aware people of this matter is not
emerging to be really fruitful to now. So what would be the way to overcome
this hazardous situation? May be this can be answered by the facilitation of
Social Business, introduced by Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus.
It is well-known that
seven principles of Yunus Social Business are (YSB) [8], firstly, it should
checkmate poverty, or one or more problems i.e., edification, healthiness,
technology entrance & environment, which menace people & society;
moreover, it cannot aim at profit maximization. Secondly, it is required to
focus on financial & economic sustainability. Thirdly, investors will get
back their investment amount only & no bonus is given. Fourthly, when
investment amount is paid back, its’ profit stays with the business for spreading
out & improvement. Fifthly, it must be environmentally sentient. Sixthly, workforce
should get bazaar wage with enhanced working surroundings. Finally, one should
continue it with joy. So, if we relate all the principles we start to find a
remedial method to answer our question here.
As YSB is concerned
about environmental issues & on other side, tourism is mainly carried out
by travel agencies then if there are some policies accumulated by government to
promote YSB in this sector then this will in near future must cut down
environmental pollution. And to promote YSB in tourism sector, government may
pursue some policies like processing special tax rebate for YSB inspired travel
agencies, may ask for competition thus finance better ideas by its’ other
organs & may regard them as green
entrepreneurs thus provide them all other necessary facilities to grow. If it
really happens, young & innovative minds will eventually come & take
the hold of overall tourism industry of Bangladesh thus will start leading the
sector one day by spreading out the business all over the country with a new brand
image, which will surely prove to be copied by the entrepreneurs residing
elsewhere in the world. In turn, it will lure more & more tourists which
may even cross forecast one because of Bangladesh’s fresh & environment
friendly tourism brand image, simultaneously which will even minimize the
environmental distortions too. Yes, it can be said at last that, there is truly
an efficient way to expand this labor-intensive tourism sector thus to earn
more foreign currencies directly & to minimize the rate of environmental
distortions simultaneously, just by promoting YSB in this sector with the
proper concentration of Bangladesh government & who does not know it, “a
good policy has greater impact than a good project”!
References
[1] UNWTO, 2014; http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2014-07-21/international-tourism-strong-peak-season-anticipated
[2] 02B, 2014; http://www.02b.com/en/notices/2014/01/tourism_revenue_in_spain_peaked_to_59_billion_in_2013_6435.php#.U-WRC9IW3Co
[3] UNWTO, 2014; http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2014-01-20/international-tourism-exceeds-expectations-arrivals-52-million-2013
[4] EIA, 2013; http://www.eia.gov/countries/country-data.cfm?fips=qa
[6] The Hindu, 2013; http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/tourists-cause-pollution-problems-in-nilgiris-dt/article4682459.ece
[8] Grameen Creative
Lab, 2009. http://www.grameencreativelab.com/a-concept-to-eradicate-poverty/7-principles.html
Writer: Enamul Hafiz
Latifee; Graduate Student, Department of Economics, Shahjalal University of
Science & Technology.
Email:
enamul.hafiz.sust@gmail.com
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