Fisheries-based ecotourism in Bangladesh: Potentials and challenges

Abstract

Recreational fishing trips constitute a significant part of the tourism business in many countries. Linking fisheries to tourism can be both a response to the need to create innovative tourism products and the need to find new sources of income for fisheries to make them more profitable and sustainable. This leads to the question of whether Bangladesh can be developed as a Fisheries-Based Ecotourism (FbE) destination. Though several types of research have been done concerning the prospects of ecotourism in Bangladesh, the feasibility of FbE specifically remains under-studied. Based on a literature review and stakeholder interviews, this study explores the concept of FbE in a Bangladeshi context and its potential impacts on socio-economic community life as well as on the environment. This paper makes the case that the diversified topography of Bangladesh-including the riverine flat alluvial plains, hills and valleys, deciduous and evergreen forests, lakes, seashores, and beaches-is ripe with potential for FbE development. With its focus on the prospects and challenges of FbE development in Bangladesh, this paper could provide a useful reference point for future discourse on these sorts of cultural and economic strategies.