Agricultural Research Management Information System

Home
Research Summary
Search
About Us
- ARMIS
- Brochure
Contact Us
Report
User Request
Data Input
Help
- Operation Manual
  - PDF
  - Video
- Program Area & Commodity
We have reached 37600 number of research entries at this moment.

- Logout

Research Detail

Home
Research
Detail

Community Based Ecotourism in Income Generation: a Study on the Sundarbans Adjacent Area of Bangladesh

Saha, S. K.
Relief International, Bangladesh

Ahmed, M. F.
Economics Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna

Roy, T. K.
Dept.of Urban and Regional Planning, Khulna University Engineering & Technology, Khulna

Haldar, P. K.
Concern Worldwide, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The rich natural and cultural attractions are valuable ingredients for community based ecotourism development in Bangladesh. Every year, a large number of tourists visit in the Sundarbans, which has a significant contribution in the household income to the people who are mostly involved in this sector. The result of the empirical model of Durbin-Watson test revealed the model significant at 1% and 5% level. The income counted here is considered as dependent variable and the age, education, experience, number of tourist served; poor infrastructure; poor communication and transportation; poor knowledge about CBET; lack of government policy etc. as independent variable, the eco cottage quality, natural beauty and security are the dummy variable. The result shows that, the age, number of tourist served and absence of leadership and entrepreneurship ability are significant at 1% and 5% level; experience and the eco cottage quality also found significant for income. However, community based ecotourism industry in Bangladesh is facing many problems, such as lack of transportation and communication system, poor investment, political unrest situation of the country , lack of government policy, poor marketing policy to attract the tourists, poor knowledge about CBET, lack of well-planned accommodation, food, entertainment and other services to satisfy diverse categories of tourists. The issue of safety and security of the tourists of both domestic and foreign origins is also very important for the development of ecotourism in Sundarbans area. Though a policy has been adopted in the recent time for ensuring sustainable development of this sector, the strategies adopted under the policy are not yet being seriously taken up for implementation. Besides, the country requires a strong physical planning strategy to develop its urban and rural areas, and national transportation and communication system to establish connectivity to the tourism spots. There should be a strong marketing policy, business planning as well for the promotion of tourism in the country.

Keywords: Community based ecotourism, Eco cottage, Eco site, Ecotour guide, Boatman

Location: Sundarbans region

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Income generation

Objectives:

This study was undertaken to find out the households income and employment generation of existing local eco-tour promoters and to identify existing mechanism of community based ecotourism in the Sundarbans region.

Methodology:

To meet the objectives of this study two type of methods like qualitative or described and quantitative analysis have been used. A questionnaire survey of 60 households (30 for Boatman and 30 for Ecotour Guide) has been conducted for the collection of quantitative information. Three (03) Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) have been conducted to collect the qualitative information. The Key Informant Interview (KII) method has also been used in 03 areas. The secondary information has been collected from different websites, Forest Department, Universities, journals and research papers etc.Study area: The research has been conducted in Dacope and Shyamnagar upazilas, which are located at southern part of Bangladesh adjacent to the Sundarbans. Dacope upazila is located at 22.5722°N; 89.5111°Eunder Khulna district and Shyamnagar upazila is located at 22.3306° N; 89.1028° E under Satkhira district (LGED, 2014). Influential factors of household income through econometric models: The basic model used in this study for assessing the level of households income as a function of factors such as, age of Ecotour Guides, highest level of education of Ecotour Guides, business experience of Ecotour Guides etc. Thus, the model for the Ecotour Guides has been specified as follows: rie= ß0+ ß1X1 + ß2X2+ ß3X3+ ß4X4+ ß5X5 + ß6X6 + ß7X7 + ß8X8 + ß9X9 + ß10X10 + ß11X11 + ß12X12 + ß13X13+ ß14X14+ ß15X15+ eie. . . . . . (eq. 1) Where, rie=households income (BDT); β0 =intercept; X1 = age of ecotour guides(yrs); X2 = ecotour guides’ highest level of education (yrs); X3=number of tourists served(person); X4=experience (yrs); X5=infrastructure (used likert scale data); X6=communication and transportation facilities (used likert scale data); X7 =geographical condition (used likert scale data); X8=investment in this sector(used likert scale data); X9=leadership and entrepreneurship ability (used likert scale data); X10=political situation of the country(used likert scale data); X11=government policy(used likert scale data); X12=knowledge about CBET (used likert scale data); X13=eco cottage/resort quality (used likert scale data); X14=eco site security (used likert scale data); X15=natural beauty (used likert scale data); ß1 to ß15=regression coefficient; eie=error term.

Source of Information: (2015) / Int. J. Bus. Manag. Soc. Res. 02(01): 80-91

Article Link (Online Journal): DOI: 10.18801/ijbmsr.020115.09

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The contribution of tourism is related with the Gross Domestic Product. In Bangladesh, it is expected to rise from 3.9% (BDT265.9b or US$3,786.4m) in 2010 to 4.1% (BDT788.4b or US$8,781.7m) by 2020. Community involvement for the ecotourism activity is very satisfactory. The people of the ecotourism spots are directly and indirectly getting benefits from the tourism activity. Many poor people from ecotourism spots like boatman, tour guide, rickshaw puller, eco cottage owner, cultural actors, handicraft producer, tea stall or small grocery shop owner, Sundarbans resource harvester, day laborer, photographer, small and medium entrepreneurs find tourism as a stable source of income. The people in Sundarbans adjacent areas are now operating the ecotourism activities in limited scale.The community people are now earning from ecotourism business, but mass people are not engaged now in this business. The people who are mostly engaged in this sector have been able to increase their household income from the ecotourism business. The household income through community based ecotourism business are mostly affected by the positive factors like how much tourists are served by the entrepreneurs, the years of schooling, age, experience, eco cottage quality and the negative factors like weak leadership to manage the business. They are facing the little bit problem due to the limited knowledge about community based ecotourism, poor transportation and communication facilities, infrastructure etc. More over there have limited or no policy instrument about ecotourism for the Sundarbans. Above all, emphasis has to be given on the security of the tourists, accommodation facility, improvement of safe transportation and communication infrastructure in the Sundarbans adjacent area by road, river and sea; arrangement of clean and hygienic food & beverage, sightseeing, publication of brochures, handicrafts marketing. The community based organizations should develop tourism management skills and improve their ability to coordinate with other agencies, commence local research, combine local knowledge with local curriculum and establish CBET networking among themselves and link with others. The government should support local tourism development programs with formulation and implementation of sound ecotourism policy.

Knowledge Management: Journal