Little on prospects of Backpacking tourism in Bangladesh

-Istiak Ahmed

Bangladesh is a destination with scattered attractions due to poor infrastructure. Most of the

people have not heard of us. And who did, they know Bangladesh as a poor country suffering

from annual natural disasters and political instability. It is not wise to deny this negative

reputation and compete with other countries that possess positive image. Instead, we should

embrace and capitalize on the fact.

Nowadays, international tour is an

indication of social status. Since level of

personal earning is not rising that much,

people tend to visit best-valued

destination to get their money’s worth.

People are interested in eco-friendly

tours, backpacking adventure and

concerned about bringing a ‘change’ to

the world through pro-poor tourism. This

is our chance to positively market the

downsides and invest on achievable

prospect. What we should tell the world

is:

Hey! our infrastructure is not good

enough. But if you want marvelous meals

for under 1 dollar, a mid-range hotel

room for less than 10 times that, 27

hours first class river cruising for less than

27 dollars and tiger spotting tour to

world’s largest mangrove forest for less

than 150 dollars then visit us (Lonely

Planet). We may not provide you luxury.

But if you want to experience original

travel, best hospitality and walk on

unbeaten track then visit us. We know we are poor and disaster stricken. Your decision to visit

Bangladesh will represent your decision to change the world. I think that is how we should

promote.

I do not get why we always try to attract luxury tourists. Well, we can accommodate them in

the luxury hotel suits we are building with passion and then? What particular products do we

have to offer them? Hardly accessible scattered destinations, struggling days of local

community, dusty city and muddy countryside. I suggest not doing that. You promise a kiss and

land a punch. That is when negative words of mouth spread. For now we should hit for the

backpacker’s kind.

When it comes to backpacking, thing that matters most is the amount needed to get by during

one’s stay. Destinations that can set a fine-line between price and quality balancing both

soundly tend to win significant amount of tourists. Countries like Thailand (!), Indonesia, Nepal,

Nicaragua, and Bolivia realized the idea; now experiencing soaring tourist arrival and earning

reliable recommendation. Thailand’s $3 dollar dorm bed, Indonesia’s $1.5 dollar buffet,

Nicaragua’s $4-5 dollar lunch/dinner and Bolivia’s $5-6 dollar basic accommodation in clean and

respectable place considered as backpacker’s candy.

Hang on now. What about Bangladesh? I asked myself the same thing. Well let me show you

something. Pokhara city of Nepal; considered as the best backpacking destination since it

provides affordability to light pockets. Pokhara tops the list providing average $14.32 daily cost

for a backpacker. Which includes a dorm bed, 3 budget meals, 2 public transport, 1 paid cultural

attraction and drinks. No destination from Bangladesh made that list of more than 100

destinations. Despite that, I am comparing our most expensive Dhaka against the cheapest of

the world.

Items Pokhara. Nepal (appx) Dhaka,Bangladesh (appx)

1.Accommodation Dorm: $4 Dorm: $4.50 (possible, rare)

2.Transportation Bus: $0.50/km Taxi: $1.70/km

Bus: $0.20/km Taxi: $1.92/km

3.Cultural attraction Devi’s falls: $0.50 Whole DU campus tour and national museum tour: $1

4.Food and drinks Breakfast: $1.48 Lunch: $2.05 Dinner: 2.09 3 soft drinks: $2.00

Breakfast: $1 Lunch: $1.53 Dinner: $1.92 3 soft drinks: $1.28

Source: Price of Travel and NUMBEO

Average daily cost in Dhaka: $13.35 (1 dollar = 78 taka)

Average daily cost in Pokhara: $14.32 (1 dollar = 98 NPR)

Now as you can see, we can even top the cheapest. But as we are so deluded attracting luxury

tourists that we don’t realize we don’t have enough infrastructure or incredible artificial

entertainment which they value most. So, backpackers can be the backbone of our tourism.

Following statistics might make you think.

Over the years, backpackers are taken lightly considering their least contribution to the

economy. But in 2012 young tourists spent $217 billion; more escalation than other groups.

Study of youth and student travel released by Amsterdam-based World Youth Student and

Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation also shows that young tourists represent 20% of

international tourism. Despite the global recession student spending has hiked more than 40%

as did the duration of their stay. And as they search for cheap accommodation ‘hostels

overtaking hotels as popular form of accommodation. I see things in our favor. The first thing

we have to do is introduce us to the world. I have some idea.

Think. You are a middle class man, in a shop to buy a chocolate for your kid. You are standing

before shelf, containing hundreds of chocolate from dozens of companies. With 20 taka in

pocket, you want chocolate that contains cashew nut and only two kinds meet your choice.

Now, the first brand has eye-catching packaging and second brand does not have an attracting

pack but enriched with rare coffee essence but not even specified on package. Then which one

would he buy? Obviously, the first brand while second brand resembles the pathetic conditions

of Bangladesh tourism. Standing on the unfortunate analog irony line in this digital age, we are

facing the same dilemma. Here is how.

Last year my friends suddenly decided to visit Manikganj and one fine morning we set out for it.

After we reached there and had something to eat, we visited Baliati palace, which is by the way

one renowned piece of old architecture. We faced no trouble finding that, since locals were

aware enough to direct us to where it was. Then we decided to go to other places like:

Imampara Jame Masjid, Teota rajbari, Navaratna temple, Bird village, Ekdala fort, Machain

mosque Dhankora jamindar bari, Katasgarh fort and Ibrahim shah tomb. Now here comes the

trouble. We asked locals (especially CNG drivers) about how to go to famous Pir majar, they

directed us to some Belal pir’s astana which was not what we found in Google search. Being in

such condition we searched in google map for direction and except for “Baliati Palace”, not a

single place was listed! You can find information about these places but you cannot find how to

get there then what’s the point?

If we face this much trouble getting there, what about foreigners or people who are less

oriented to technology. So, to remove the misery I propose to:

Include this huge number of beautiful places in Google map.

Add “places of interest” map to the most renowned places so that when people come

and visit that place, they can easily access that and visit to nearby places too.

Make the map available to the CNG drivers, rickshaw pullers and whoever get in touch

with tourists.

Make a sequence of where to go first and where last based on distance for optimum

time consumption.

Dividing Bangladesh into different “travel zones” through research and consultation

with transportation ministry and tourism authorities (BTB, BPC, TOAB)

Make the maps available according to ‘travel zones’ in the website of BTB.

How to add these places on map? Here is the solution. Bangladesh Tourism Board and

Archeology department should have the map of where are those places on Bangladesh. If they

don’t then what were they doing till this date?

Google map provides “My map” option where anybody can pin a location through GPS enabled

devices. But it will not be displayed to others. Our plan is- we should gather 50 or more true

travelers like Tinku Chowdhuri and other. Give them GPS enabled devices. Make teams. Send

them to places. They will happily pin all the places that are on the list and on the way, they may

discover countless places worth visiting. They will be asked to collect:

Pin position

About the place

Quality photographs

Longitude and latitude

After a year or so, we will collect the exact locations of their pinned places. Take the latitude

and longitude. Compose all places in a new “MyMap” that Google provides to their account

users. Send those places to Google through government to add on Google map so that the

entire world can see those whenever searches. This is not that hard nut to crack. We achieved

our freedom within 9 months ignoring obstacles and this is just a project of roaming around.

Advantages we will get:

We can easily access places of ‘travel zones’.

We can download travel zone-wise PDF maps from website before we set out.

Both domestic and international tourist arrival will increase.

We can discover new places so ‘travel zones’ will be enriched and extended by places to

visit. For example, tourists in Dhaka might not go to Noakhali only to visit Nijhum dwip.

If explorers can find out more places to visit in Noakhali, it can be a good package to

travel all together.

Tourists can visit loads of places without wasting their valuable time.

Tourism will be a habit of middle class and even lower middle class international people.

Then they will know Bangladesh as cheap travelling destination enriched with many

places to visit. They can visit more places spending less money. Like the chocolate

example I gave, “Rich people may pick cheap chocolate sometimes but poor never pick

an expensive one” and percentage of second type of people is greater.

Places will be accessible by the people who are less oriented to technology.

The red-circled place above is ‘Teota Rajbari’. I manually pinned it using ‘My map’ option

from my GPS device. Like this, we can find out other places.

Before we invite tourists in our country, we must know what we got and how to get there. If

we don’t, we have no right to invite them to humiliation.