The State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mahbub Ali has said the country's first-ever tourism master plan would be completed by December this year to build a sustainable tourism industry attracting more inbound and domestic tourists.
"The much-awaited master plans will play an important role in flourishing country's tourism as we need a properly coordinated guideline for basic development in our leisure industry," he said.
The state minister was speaking as the chief guest at a workshop titled "Draft Strategic Master Plan (Phase II), Preparation of Tourism Master Plan for Bangladesh" at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital on Thursday.
Ali said the master plan is being formulated considering the achievements of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) on tourism as well as aligning the government's Vision 2041 and Delta Plan.
The master plan was supposed to be completed by June last year but due to the pandemic, the new target of completion month has been fixed for December this year.
Presided over by civil aviation and tourism secretary Md Mokammal Hossain, the inaugural session of the workshop was also addressed by a member of the parliamentary standing committee on civil aviation and tourism ministry Sayeda Rubina Akhtar. Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) under the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry has engaged a reputed international consultancy firm, named IPE Global, to prepare a master plan on tourism.
IPE Global Limited is an Indian international development consulting group known for providing technical assistance and solutions for development and sustainable growth in developing countries.
Bangladesh has set a target of attracting 10 million tourists and revenue of 8 billion US dollars by 2041.
In the first phase, the consultants analysed the tourism sector and evaluated the potential of tourism products in all 64 districts of the country.
In the second phase, the team identified different areas or products which need special focus to boost destination planning and ensure the overall development of the sector.
In the last and final phase, the identification of suitable areas for various tourism development activities and interventions would be completed.
It is expected that once implemented the master plan will help tourism become the third largest foreign currency earner of Bangladesh after apparel and remittance.
