COVID-19 Impact on Regional Tourism Development in Bangladesh-A Study of Cumilla District

Abstract

The travel industry is one of the most developing businesses all around the globe. Bangladesh can possibly create the travel industry on account of its alluring natural beauty and rich cultural heritage. But the COVID-19 adversely impacts the travel and tourism industry all over the world and Bangladesh is no exception. The main objective of the study was to find out the COVID-19 impact on regional tourism development in Bangladesh-A study of Cumilla district. The study area was Cumilla District. Tourists of Cumilla District were the population of the study. The study has done mainly based on primary and secondary data. For collecting primary data, the survey method is used by distributing online questionnaires through social media. From the analysis, it was found that at present all the tourist places have been opened for tourists. But the presence of tourists is not so high. The majority of the respondents said high damage has been done to Cumilla tourism due to lockdown & it has also caused a lot of damage to the development of the sights & the surrounding area in tourist places. The majority of the respondents are satisfied with transportation quality. But they are dissatisfied with non-compliance with hygiene rules, high cost of touring, poor security & the management style of tourist place authority. Most of them suggest for arranging adequate thermal scanners & hand sanitizer at the entrance of the tourist place, reducing the cost of touring & taking more promotional activity. Some guidelines have been mentioned in the recommendation part.