Introduction
Tourism is a constantly growing industry and becomes a popular leisure activity all over the world. Tourism involves a combination of processes, activities, services and related industries including transportation, accommodation, eating and drinking facilities, shopping, entertainment and other hospitality services which provide travel experiences to individuals or groups travelling outside their normal residence (Goeldner and Ritchie 2011). It generally includes short-term (not more than one year) movement of people travelling away from their regular residence. Therefore, tourism includes the movement of people- for less than 24 h as excursionist to at least 24 h as tourists-for holiday, recreation, health, games, education , religious or any other purposes (Cooper et al. 2008; Holloway and Taylor 2006). This movement may be domestic or international. But in both the cases, tourism acts as a catalyst for economic development through creating jobs, earning valuable foreign exchanges, and stimulating both local and foreign investments (Andriotis 2001; Armstrong et al. 1974; Bhuiyan 2015; Eadington and Smith 1992; Levy and Lerch 1991; Liu 2003).
Nowadays, tourism is well thought-out as one of the building blocks of global economy. This industry universally generates billions of dollars businesses every year (Uniting Travel 2018). Following World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) (2019), travel and tourism sector contributed to 10.4% of worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) amounting 8.8 trillion US dollars approximately and 10% of total employments (1 out of every 10 jobs) through generating just about 319 million jobs in 2018 (WTTC 2019). The significance of tourism in global economy continued to rise in 2020. As one of the thrust sectors in Bangladesh, the contribution of this sector to GDP of Bangladesh was 10,567.4 million US dollars (about 4.3% of total GDP in 2017) and to employment was 24,32,000 job opportunities (around 3.8% of total employment in 2017) which is anticipated to rise in coming years (WTTC 2018). With the ever-increasing contribution of tourism sector to economic development of Bangladesh, careful attention from both government and private stakeholders for developing this sector becomes imperative.
Bangladesh, the darling child of nature, is situated in South Asia and consecrated with natural scenic beauties, forests, attractive hills, hummocks, valleys, rivers, sea beaches, islands, antiquarian sites, monuments, historical and religious places etc. (Ahmed et al. 2010; Rahman et al. 2010). All these affluent natural and manmade attractions, historical and cultural sites constitute major tourist destinations in Bangladesh. To enjoy its immense beauties, every year large number of domestic and international tourists visit Bangladesh (Haider 2015), indicating the high possibility and growing demand of this country’s tourism industry. According to World Economic Forum (WEF) (2019), Bangladesh secured maximum ever progress in the travel and tourism competitiveness index (WEF 2019) and therefore, successfully promoting Bangladesh as an attractive tourist destination to the world. Besides, over the last 5 years, along with the increased domestic tourists, the number of international tourists’ visiting Bangladesh also increased. Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) (2019) and Financial Express Report (FE Report) (2019), the amount of foreign tourists roaming Bangladesh increasing continuously and stands at around 0.14 million, 0.20 million, 0.26 million and 0.27 million in the year 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively; while around 0.20 million foreign tourists have already visited Bangladesh up to July, 2019 (BPC 2019; FE Report 2019).
To meet this growing tourist demand, there are no exceptions for providing better services and quality facilities. With the increased demands for our country’s tourism, demands for tourist facilities are also increasing simultaneously in Bangladesh. Quality issue can be serious in tourist facilities offered. Applying standards as benchmarks can be a way for ensuring quality (Cruz et al. 2018). We can apply standards for our different tourism facilities like transportation facilities, lodging or accommodation facilities, food service facilities, meetings and conventions facilities, recreation and entertainment facilities etc. As these facilities are intended to cater wide range of amenities for the tourists, design standards as well as development for these facilities need immediate attention of the government . Although as per Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (2020), many countries separately (like Singapore) or jointly (like ASEAN countries) set standards for their tourism facilities (ASEAN 2020; Chye 2015), but unfortunately, Bangladesh failed to develop standards for tourist facility design and development . This study also found inadequate policy support of the Bangladesh government in this particular area. Therefore, this study focuses on strengthening the capacities of the Bangladesh government in ensuring the quality in standard design and development through engaging both the international and local agencies along with the private level stakeholders.
Tourism Facilities Offered to Tourists
As the facilities offered to tourists at different destinations significantly affect their satisfaction and revisit intention; government , destination managers, and other tourism service providers should be aware of providing standard facilities. For our discussion on tourism facilities, we will consider five types of tourism facilities namely transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, conference and events, and recreation and entertainment facilities.
Transportation Facilities
Transportation as the first and foremost tourism facility affects the movement of tourists in between their place of origin to their destination (Goeldner and Ritchie 2011). Transportation and tourism not only depends on each other but also each acts as the cause of other, hence their relationship is symbiotic (Page and Ge 2009). Transportation facilities act as a key driver of every tourism industry and significantly affect the growth of tourism industry (Rodrigue 2020). A wide range of transportation modes like air, road, rail or water are available to tourists to access their desired destinations and roam around it. Usually, air transportation is the foremost mode of international and mid to long distance tourism (Rodrigue 2020) whereas road transport (i.e. personal automobile) is the main means of domestic and short trip tourism (Goeldner and Ritchie 2011). However, water and rail ways also plays important role in providing transportation facilities to tourists.
Accommodation Facilities
Accommodation facilities are one of the earliest forms of commercial business (Goeldner and Ritchie 2011) which most of the tourists booked even before planning a tour to a sought after destination . Although accommodation or lodging services normally provide overnight stay facilities, it can also cover day stay facilities for rest and revive of tourists (Cooper et al. 2008). Development of tourism industry largely depends on the quality and quantity of accommodation facilities available to tourists (Saxena 2008). Quality of the accommodation facilities affects tourist satisfaction, hence, influence their overnights stay, revisit or recommendation decision (Bigné et al. 2000; Cruz et al. 2018; Scheyvens and Russell 2012). Today’s tourists favor hotels, motels, home stays, suites, resorts, or private room sharing properties that are environment friendly and conserves energy.
Food Service Facilities
Like accommodation facilities, food service facilities have significant impact on the development of any country’s tourism industry. The food service facilities, popularly known as the food and beverage facilities, provide meals, snacks, beverages and drinks to tourists for their immediate consumption. Food, meals and other food related facilities can affect a tourist’s destination choice decision (Andersson et al. 2017). Food service facilities includes amenities provided at a wide range of casual restaurants, family restaurants, travel food service institutions, bars, food trucks, street food service providers, local restaurants, take away restaurants, coffee shops or cafeterias. Nowadays, responsible tourists usually choose foods that are traditional and uphold the community values. Besides, conservation practices are the main consideration for four out of ten tourists in choosing their restaurants (Goeldner and Ritchie 2011).
Conference, Convention, Meeting, Exhibition and Relevant Facilities
As tourism itself a profitable business for destination countries, ignoring tourism facilities for business tourist could be destructive. Therefore, besides individual tourists, special types of facilities for business tourists should also be offered at large traffic generating destinations. Appropriate arrangement and supporting facilities for conference, convention, meeting, exhibition, special event, seminar or trade show should also be provided to small and large business groups. These facilities (i.e. festivals, fairs, events etc.) are amid the fastest growing components of global tourism and act as a potent device to attract off-season tourists (Goeldner and Ritchie 2011). Although the demand for these types of tourism or tourist facilities are initially generated from the domestic tourist, however, these facilities, if offered successfully, can open opportunities to attract international tourists (Rogerson 2005).
Recreation and Entertainment Facilities
Since the number of young, thrill-seeking tourists are increasing day by day (Hence 2018), the demand for recreation and entertainment facilities at tourist destinations are also increasing. Recreation and entertainment are pleasurable, socially allowed activities that revitalize the tourist during their leisure. During travel, every tourist seeks escape from usual life and therefore, demand for recreation and entertainment facilities like golfing, fishing, skiing, bird watching, horse riding, hiking, wilds trekking, parasailing, watching live performance at theater, music concerts, and circuses etc. are rising rapidly (Goeldner and Ritchie 2011). However, to ensure profitable and sustainable tourism business, providing such facilities to tourists should value social, behavioural and environmental norms (Lawson and Manning 2002; Manning et al. 1996; Partalidou and Iakovidou 2008; Vaske et al. 1993).
Tourism Facility Design Standards: Global Perspectives
Transportation, accommodation, food service, events and exhibitions, and recreation and entertainment facilities are primary components of successful operation of every tourism destination irrespective of their size and location. Demand for such facilities is growing all over the world. The quality of these facilities can be a determinant in attracting tourists from national and international arena and retaining competitiveness of the destination (Warnken 2002). Therefore, maintaining quality of various tourist facilities becomes imperative that calls for government policy framework for planning and managing the destination . Applying minimum standards as benchmark can be a viable way to attain quality in tourist facilities (Cruz et al. 2018). Although some individual country specific (i.e. Macedonia, Singapore) or region specific (i.e. ASEAN, IMT-GT: Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle) standards, laws, regulations or policy frameworks for tourist facility design and development were found; but surprisingly, no universal standards for tourism facilities were found in the existing inventory of tourism research . For our discussion on tourism facility standards, we therefore rely largely on the tourism standards established by ASEAN, USA, Singapore, Macedonia, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
While providing transportation facilities, tourist safety and environmental preservation standard should be ensured first. For road, rail or water transport, drivers must have driving license, limited working hours, and strictly follow water/rail/highway codes and speed limits. Seat belt facilities for tourists must be present in every transport. Besides international and regional air connectivity, local air connectivity to major destinations must also be established for comfortable movement of tourists. Tourist’s need for travel and baggage carrying between airport and other transport terminals, lodgings, restaurants, and tourist spots must be fulfilled. Moreover, use of leaded and fossil fuel must be reduced to restrict carbon emissions (Rodrigue 2020). Accommodation facilities should be provided to tourists in a way that is environment friendly, conserves energy, and ensures community lifestyle. Accommodations facilities must offer green products, apply 3R-reduce, reuse and recycle- concept in waste management, ensure water and energy efficient technologies, maintain indoor and outdoor air quality, temperature and noise control technologies inside the hotel or home stay etc. (ASEAN 2020; Cruz et al. 2018; Menegaki and Agiomirgianakis 2019). Multiple food service providers like hotels, restaurants, bars or cafes provide food and drink to tourists for immediate consumption or takeaway that must be prepared and stored by following the principles of hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP). Besides, buildings, rooms and equipments used for food preparation and preservation should be clean, hygienic, dirt and mould free. Furthermore, food handling staffs must maintain personal hygiene (Wood 2019). Hotels, restaurants or food serving premises must have adequate ventilation scheme to control fumes, smoke, odor, steam and vapors. However, in all instances, consumption of region specific, seasonal and locally produced foods must be encouraged (ASEAN 2020; Menegaki and Agiomirgianakis 2019). The terms convention, conference, exhibition and meeting are almost similar and can be used interchangeably (Lee and Park 2002; Rockett and Smillie 1994). To be successful in attracting domestic and international tourist market, these facilities must offer modern amenities, easy accessibility, a wide range of accommodation close to those facilities, attractive surroundings and shops (Law 1987). Besides, these facilities must be supported with purpose built venues, ground transportation services for the delegates, and skilled manpower to run domestic and international events (Sangpikul and Kim 2009). Recreation and entertainment facilities usually revitalize the tourists and standard setting for such facilities is mainly the responsibility of the government or public sector (Cooper et al. 2008; McConnell 1985). Public sector authorities such as local or regional government , tourists’ boards etc. deals with designing optimal mix for recreation and entertainment facilities. For some of these facilities like skiing, horse riding, hiking, wilds trekking, parasailing etc., destination service providers must arrange necessary safety and security precautions. Besides, colorful and community based evening life should be extended to tourists (Roy 2016). However, for all types of recreational and entertainment facilities in which the tourist participates, collective beliefs of community, values, norms, and cultural patterns usually acts as standards that should be honored by both the tourists and destination service providers.
Tourism Facility Design Standards in Bangladesh
Despite having numerous attractions, Bangladesh tourism industry failed to flourish as expected. Although the number of tourists visiting different destinations of Bangladesh are increasing every year, but this figure is quite dissatisfactory compared to the top most destination countries, even to the neighbouring countries (Roy 2016; WTTC 2019). Besides lack of promotion , apathy of government and other policy planners, and poor destination management; poor quality facilities offered to tourists is one of the prime reasons behind this backwardness. Quality tourism facility significantly influences tourist decision to avail a specific tourism product or service (Bigné et al. 2000). In most of the cases, tourists normally search for the best available tourist facility and the role of design standard and development become important in this regard.
Bangladesh made ever best progress and ranked 120th among 140 countries in the tourism competitiveness index in terms of available tourist-friendly facilities for instance air transport, accommodation, safety and security, culture and constant travel opportunities for tourists (WEF 2019). But, Bangladesh failed to establish own standards, whether formal or informal, for its different facilities offered to tourists. Surprisingly, the only instrument it has corresponding to tourism facility design and development is its national tourism policy-2010. While searching over the internet for any documents related to tourist facility design standards and development in Bangladesh, the authors did not find any such documents developed by the corresponding NTO or the government as the key facilitator for this specific task. Besides, the authors also emailed 15 government officials, agencies and private destination managers regarding their tourist facility design standards; regretfully none of them responded yet. This reflects inadequate policy support of the Bangladesh government as well as apathy of the private level destination managers in this particular area.
However, some work plans, strategies or policies related to tourism facilities are found on different state owned websites (i.e. https://mocat.gov.bd/; http://www.parjatan.gov.bd/; http://www.tourismboard.gov.bd/). With a view to providing contemporary and standard tourism facilities to tourists, Bangladesh government has planned to strengthen its different runways and airports through better safety and security measures, expansion of runways, and constructions of new airports. Construction projects for new hotels, motels, youth inns in Rangamati, Kuakata, and Dinajpur; upgradation, reform and development of different existing hotels and motels in Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, and Sylhet; and introduction of many other tourists facilities (i.e. formation of tourist police for the safety of tourists) adjacent to many tourist spots are going on. Along with Chinese, Thai, Arabian, Spanish and Western menus, our traditional organic and safe foods are now made available in almost all state owned hotels and motels and private luxurious hotels and restaurants. Drinking facilities for foreign tourists are also made available in selected hotels, motels, and restaurants. Conventions, conference, trade fair, and exhibitions facilities are also ensured for domestic and foreign delegates in different destinations (i.e. Dhaka, Chattogram, and Cox’s Bazar). Besides, national hotel and tourism training institute (NHTI) is working hard to produce professional and skilled manpower to handle such events. Moreover, to provide the tourist mind refreshing recreation and entertainment, government has introduced and encouraged community based folk cultural programs, local foods, primal handicraft and cottage industries, and eco-guide training for safety on concerned destinations.
Evaluation of Tourism Facility Design in Bangladesh
As the authors do not find sufficient documents related to tourism facility design standards and development in Bangladesh over the internet, therefore personal face to face interview with destination policy planners and managers are arranged. The authors initially invited fifteen (15) top officials from different government tourism related agencies and private tourism service providers over telephone calls and email for depth interview. But unfortunately, all of them neither show interest nor responded. Therefore, the authors then choose 10 mid-level government tourism officials, destination managers and international tourists for conducting semi-structured interview. Besides, opinion of tourists regarding the standard of tourism facilities offered in Bangladesh are also collected from 50 domestic and foreign tourists selected randomly from Dhaka, Cox’s Bazar, and Saint Martin’s Island.
About the tourism facility design standard and development in different destinations in Bangladesh, some of the interviewee stated that:
“We are working vigorously to develop the facilities of our different tourist destinations. Although we have no formal standards for developing different facilities in our destinations, but we have already adopted a national tourism policy which acts as guidelines for developing our tourism industry, as well as its different facilities. Besides, based on our experiences gathered from many top-tier destination countries, we are trying to improve our transportation, accommodation, catering, recreation and other facilities at different tourist spots”.(Interviewee # 7)
“…certainly, our tourism industry has huge potentials. But, work process of our government is very slow. Government has failed to set any standard or provision for design and development of different tourist facilities. Therefore, we have to set standards for different tourist facilities based on our personal experiences and explanation of quality. Rather, government is engaging themselves with establishing new agencies. Moreover, they don’t have incentives/motivational programs for well performing service providers at different destinations”. (Interviewee # 4)
“I have travelled many tourist spots in Bangladesh and experienced poor transportation, accommodation, entertainment and recreational facilities, and tourist management. Besides, due to absence of government monitoring, many service providers charge unnecessary and excessive service charges. Evening life and drinking facilities are completely absent here. Besides, professionalism in providing services and managing destinations are also missing”. (Interviewee # 9)
Tourists’ evaluation on standard of tourism facilities in Bangladesh
Statement on Tourism Facilities | Options | Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Tourists’ evaluation on Standard of transportation Facilities in Bangladesh | Very bad | 15 | 30.0 | 30.0 |
Bad | 29 | 58.0 | 58.0 | |
Average | 4 | 8.0 | 8.0 | |
Good | 1 | 2.0 | 2.0 | |
Excellent | 1 | 2.0 | 2.0 | |
Total | 50 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Tourists’ evaluation on Standard of accommodation Facilities in Bangladesh | Very bad | 2 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
Bad | 24 | 48.0 | 48.0 | |
Average | 12 | 24.0 | 24.0 | |
Good | 11 | 22.0 | 22.0 | |
Excellent | 1 | 2.0 | 2.0 | |
Total | 50 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Tourists’ evaluation on Standard of food service Facilities in Bangladesh | Very bad | 5 | 10.0 | 10.0 |
Bad | 4 | 8.0 | 8.0 | |
Average | 17 | 34.0 | 34.0 | |
Good | 14 | 28.0 | 28.0 | |
Excellent | 10 | 20.0 | 20.0 | |
Total | 50 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Tourists’ evaluation on Standard of convention, conference, meeting, exhibition, event etc. Facilities in Bangladesh | Very bad | 19 | 38.0 | 38.0 |
Bad | 16 | 32.0 | 32.0 | |
Average | 11 | 22.0 | 22.0 | |
Good | 3 | 6.0 | 6.0 | |
Excellent | 1 | 2.0 | 2.0 | |
Total | 50 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Tourists’ evaluation on Standard of recreation and entertainment Facilities in Bangladesh | Very bad | 6 | 12.0 | 12.0 |
Bad | 19 | 38.0 | 38.0 | |
Average | 10 | 20.0 | 20.0 | |
Good | 12 | 24.0 | 24.0 | |
Excellent | 3 | 6.0 | 6.0 | |
Total | 50 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
The study results shows that, the standard of transportation facilities is perceived as bad by most of the tourists (58%) whereas 30% of them consider it as very bad. While evaluating the standard of accommodation facilities in Bangladesh, 48% of the tourists treat it as bad and 24% of them grade it as average. Besides, majority of the tourists’ evaluate the standard of our convention, conference, meeting, exhibition, and event facilities as either very bad (38%) or bad (32%). Moreover, a major portion of the tourists (38%) also evaluate our recreation and entertainment facilities as bad. However, 34% of the tourists evaluate the standard of our food service facilities as average, while 24% of them treated it as good. The findings of this study on transportation and accommodation facilities agree with the findings of Bhuiyan (2015), although for food service facilities, it differs.
Recommendations and Conclusions
Bangladesh, having amazing natural, god-gifted and manmade attractions, can be a prime destination for both the domestic and foreign tourists. Despite having huge potential, low tourists penetration to different destinations still remains as a great challenge for Bangladesh tourism industry (Ahmed et al. 2010; Haider 2015; Rahman et al. 2010). Offering quality facilities to tourists can be a solution to this great challenge (Warnken 2002). As the demand for quality tourist facilities in Bangladesh are raising significantly, government policy framework for setting standard on every tourism facilities design and development therefore become essential right at this moment. But, establishing standard for different tourist facilities is not an easy task for a country like Bangladesh where proper coordination among the tourism policy planners, private level service providers and other stakeholders is almost absent. Besides, Bangladesh has its National Tourism Policy-2010 as only document to start the development of standards for facility design . Therefore, taking help from the tourism standards of leading countries and regions like ASEAN, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India etc. can help greatly in this regard.
However, for developing tourism facility standards, government and other policy planners should consider a wide range of facility related issues in mind. Tourists always want comfortable journeys to maximum tourist spots at minimum possible time and cost. Therefore, hassle free better communication and transportation facilities for the tourists should be ensured in order to facilitate improved access through superior transport mechanism like high speed, secured, low-carbon, environment friendly road and railway connectivity, introduction of short distance air connectivity, and comfortable waterbus or cruise ship connectivity. Besides, more classy accommodation and lodging facilities like hotels, motels, resorts and home stays should be developed near the tourist attractions equipped with possible modern amenities i.e. spacious rooms, safe and traditional food and water, clean washroom, parking, and duty free shopping facilities. Better recreation and entertainment facilities like live music, theme parks, night clubs, bars, casinos, kayaking, surfing, fishing, golf courses should also be developed adjacent to different tourist destinations. Capacities for arranging conventions, meetings, conferences, short term events, sports competitions, trade or traditional fairs, festivals, exhibitions, folk or cultural evening etc. in different tourists spots should also be strengthened. A comprehensive policy indicating the different tourist spots and a clear direction about where, when and how to start and where, when and how to end the tour should be made available to different prime destinations for providing quality travel experience to tourist. Besides, government should make proper plan to obtain support and active participation of the international tourism agencies, private level destination managers and service providers, and community based stakeholders before setting any standard for different tourism facilities in Bangladesh. And, lastly, the entire tourism related facility standard should be set by considering the standards of leading countries and perceptions of tourists, rather than the personal experiences and quality perceptions of the policy planners.