Bangladesh has made a little progress in adventure tourism comparing to its neighbouring countries despite having a huge potential in the specific sector, tourism experts said.
They noted that the government must take proper steps to develop mountaineering, rafting, rippling, paragliding, parachuting, hiking and trekking.
Bengal Tours managing director Masud Hossain told the FE that there are no other adventure tourism activities except for cycling, camping, swimming and trekking in Bangladesh. "At this moment, Bangladesh is nowhere in the international adventure tourism market."
He said Bangladesh has a lot of potential for adventure tourism as every tourism product is associated with some kinds of adventurism.
Mr Masud, an inbound tour operator, mainly operates tourists in the Sunderbans. In his opinion, Sunderbans is an extremely adventurous product for tourists. For that, security is a big issue which needs to be ensured first.
According to him, Bangladesh is yet to identify the right adventure tourism products to offer to both the international and local adventure tourists. The country must develop these products as per the world standard and then go to the particular international adventure tourism market.
Mr Masud also suggested developing adventure tourist guide, instructors, institutions, and operators for successfully market adventure tourism products. He also stressed security, image building, country branding, culture preservation, nature conservation before entering the adventure tourism market.
Adventure tourism includes paragliding, freefall, skiing, snowboarding, trekking, mountaineering, mountain biking, rock climbing, day hiking, backpacking, zip lining, climbing, surfing, rafting and bungee jumping.
About 69 per cent of overall international travel departures leave from the Europe, North America, and South America. These three regions account for $ 263 billion in adventure travel expenditures.
Chief executive officer of Beyond Adventure and Tourism Syed Akhteruzzaman said Bangladesh is at the basic stage of adventure tourism. The country is well ahead in terms of the number of people interested in adventure tourism, he said, adding that but there is lack of security, proper infrastructure and support gear or equipment for adventure tourism. There are a few companies which do adventure tourism but most of people go to various places for soft adventure tourism on their own taking risk, he observed.
"There is a shortage of security arrangements and required gears or equipment for adventure tourism for which we discourage our foreign tourists to take to those areas," he said.
Praising some of the initiatives taken by the government for developing adventure tourism, he said Bangladesh will need another 10 years to enter the global standard adventure tourism market.
Expressing frustration, he claimed that the policymakers lack technical knowledge about adventure tourism and the tourism sector is not considered a priority sector to them.
