Community Based Tourism: A Potential Tool for Alleviating Poverty in Bangladesh

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible ways to alleviate poverty through developing community based tourism in Bangladesh- a country with a dominant rural population and agro-based economy. Community-based tourism [CBT] has been proposed as the appropriate program for addressing poverty by providing opportunities for income and employment generation. This paper deliberately attempts to portray the strategies and tactics for developing community based tourism in Bangladesh. Which properly can control the stressful nature of tourism while empowering the community; expanding tourism enterprises run by local communities; maximizing use of local labor, goods and services through reducing leakage; expanding informal sector linkages; preserving culture; conserving the environment and providing educational opportunities? However, a number of barriers prevent the poor from participating in such programs, including a lack of social capital and skills that need to be addressed before the benefits of CBT can be realized. In this regard, the study tries to find out the potentials of Islamic microfinance programs that extend small loans to poor people and provide them an access to micro-businesses supplying tourism product and services at low cost. Secondary data were used to achieve the objectives in this study. The write-up also suggests that an integrated approach to tourism planning and development is required for a notable sustainable growth of tourism sector that will very soon emerge as a major contributor to the economy of Bangladesh and will be able to unlock opportunities as well as create net benefit for the poor people of rural Bangladesh..