COVID OUTBREAK FALLOUT: Bangladesh tourism loses $2b in 2021: ADB
Business Desk: Dhaka, Jan-18,
Bangladesh’s travel and tourism sector which was hit hard by the Covid outbreak lost annual earnings of $2.03 billion and 4.20 lakh jobholders were impacted by the pandemic in 2021, according to an Asian Development Bank report.
The report said over150 a million people are dependent on the sector across the Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation countries in which one million job holders related to aviation activity lost their jobs during the period due to the Covid crisis. The report title Sustainable Tourism After Covid-19Insights and Recommendations For Asia and The Pacific was published on January 13.
The Covidpandemic has disrupted virtually all aspects of tourism and reduced international travel by 74 percent in 2020 and produced cascading effects on businesses, governments, and communities alike said the report. Despite its many challenges the report said, the pandemic presents a unique opportunity for tourism stakeholders to step back and evaluate the sector and how it can contribute more effectively to sustainable development.
The report said sustainable tourism is not a particular kind of travel or not only eco-tourism or tourism that is self-sustaining, rather, all types of tourism can also become sustainable if they help achieve the SDGs, revive the environment, or help communities thrive.
The report also suggested developing five thematic areas that have proven instrumental in supporting the contribution of tourism to achieving the SDGs. Governance, policy reformation, infrastructure, and technology development, improving research and data analyzing capabilities and ensuring academic and training skills to minimize the persistent skills shortages in the sector.
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