Alliance Grows to Include New Partners

Published: 30 May 2022

USAID’s Bangladesh Ecotourism and Conservation Alliance (BECA) has gained more allies!

In the last several months, the BECA team has been hard at work developing local connections in Bangladesh. We are pleased to announce new partnerships with four private sector tourism organizations, five NGOs, an internet marketing company, and Khulna University.

Private Tourism Partners

BECA held two workshops in Khulna and Mongla centered on using tourism to support conservation and local communities. These meetings also provided an opportunity for industry stakeholders to discuss challenges and opportunities for tourism in the Sundarbans Reserve Forest. They yielded four agreements with tourism associations in various parts of the country to partner in fostering our goal of creating a Destination Management Organization. Our new allies, representing hundreds of private tourism operations, are:

Non-Governmental Organization Partners

We have also been working to recruit the participation of both Bangladeshi and international organizations. BECA’s vision for the future of tourism is shared by:

  • the Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS), a community-based development organization working to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals;
  • the Center for Communication Action Bangladesh (C-CAB), which uses strategic communication and grassroots engagement to battle poverty and promote environmental protection;
  • WildTeam , whose mission is to conserve tigers and their habitat in the Sundarbans; 
  • Panel XP, a development organization focused on health and tourism; and
  • Planeterra, which works to empower local people through community-based tourism.

Other Partners

In our efforts to help expand the reach and appeal of the Bangladesh tourism industry, Solimar folded Webable and PanelXP into the alliance. Webable is a content- and search engine optimization-marketing company that specializes in increasing traffic to their clients’ websites. This service will give tourism businesses in Bangladesh a chance to shine in online searches.

Finally, BECA has partnered with Khulna University to develop tourism products and programs for the Scientific, Academic, Volunteer and Educational (SAVE) Travel market. Currently, we are working with faculty to identify research opportunities in the Sundarbans that could be cultivated into SAVE programs.

Ultimately, we are looking forward to expanding the Bangladesh Ecotourism and Conservation Alliance with competent and knowledgeable partners who will be instrumental in creating our shared vision of sustainable community tourism in the Sundarbans.