Khulna Tourism Planning Worshop
Published: 30 May 2022
The Bangladesh Ecotourism and Conservation Alliance, BECA, aims to capitalize on the country’s natural, cultural, and historical endowments to develop a more inclusive tourism value chain that integrates local communities and maximizes conservation benefits. Solimar International has partnered with USAID, Miles Partnership, and Conservation Capital to develop a destination management alliance in Sundarbans and its surrounding regions in Bangladesh. For this aim, a Tourism Planning Workshop took place from on April 6, 2022 at Khulna University, one of the Alliance’s new partners aiming to use tourism to conserve this beautiful destination.
The workshop’s purpose was to officially launch the Bangladesh Ecotourism and Conservation Alliance, gain industry stakeholders’ insight on challenges and opportunities for tourism in the Sundarbans, and identify a shared vision and action. The workshop presentations were about The Sundarbans’ Tourism Potential, the Sundarbans Situation Analysis, and Tourism Strategy Development for the Sundarbans.
Prior to the workshop, Khulna University Professor Dr. Wasiul joined the BECA team during the site assessment, and the team also met with the Vice Chancellor of Khulna University to discuss an MoU and partnership opportunities. The Khulna workshop centered on the topic of how tourism can support conversation and local communities and elicited feedback on stakeholder priorities.
Tourism stakeholder representatives from over a dozen organizations attended a tourism destination planning workshop at Khulna University, including:
- 12 private sector tourism associations that represents over 1,000 tourism businesses
- 5 Government Agencies
- 5 Local Development NGOs
- 2 United Nations Agencies (UNESCO & UNWTO)
- Khulna University
The workshop centered on the topic of how tourism can support conversation and local communities and elicited feedback on stakeholder priorities. To obtain feedback from stakeholders on their priorities for Destination Management Plan, a collaborative document outlining the vision for the Greater Sundarbans Destination over the next several years, BECA presented 22 draft strategies for the plan. These stakeholders rated the Destination Management Strategies in terms of priority that informed this Destination Management Plan and the ultimate strategies proposed.
The workshop was very helpful in creating and determining the future steps to take for BECA. Solimar International continues to work on the project and is excited to lead this alliance.
