The Sundarbans: Land of bliss, bounty and beauty Misbah Uddin Sumon

The Sundarban is the largest mangrove forest in the world where about 300 species of trees and herbs and about 425 species of wildlife including the Royal Bengal Tiger exist. The Sundarban was also declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The Sundarban is estimated to be about 4,110 km, of which about 1,700 km is occupied by water bodies in the forms of river, canals and creeks of width varying from a few meters to several kilometers. Every year lots of people visit Sundarban. According the Bangladesh Forest Department, the number of tourists in 2012 was 1,12,000 though the Government has imposed cap on the number of visitors in Sundarban at 1,00,000 a year to ensure sustainability of the Sundarban. The common needs of tourists who visit Sundarban are accommodation, transportation, attraction, security, information, medical facilities etc. Tourists can source necessary information regarding these from various sources including internet, travel agency, friends and other sources. Based on this sources tourists make decision whether they will go or not. Every destination has some motivating factors. Sundarban has also some motivating factors such as attractions, activities, adventure, and escape or relax; cost, transportation, and mangrove interpretation centre. Tourism consumer behavior typology for Sundarban mainly are Explorers, Drifters, Education Tourism, Medical Tourism, Recreational Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Sun lust tourism and Wanderlust tourism. Observation shows that Sundarban is fall in involvement stage in the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC), because it fulfills the criteria of involvement stage. Some of the criteria are Number of Tourists, Local involvement in the provision of service, Level of advertisement, the identification of market area, Development of tourist season, Increasing profit and Involvement of travel organisers. For marketing the product segmentation is the basis and segments are both Domestic and international tourists like, Children, Adult, young, Schools, colleges and universities, Corporate, Businessmen, People

loving the nature and ethnic culture. And target markets are corporate people, middle income people and young adults. For them promotional mix will be the both traditional and additional promotional mix. In case economic perspective of World Heritage Site, It constitutes 51% of the total reserved forest estate of Bangladesh, and contributes about 41% of total forest revenue and accounts for about 45% of all timber and fuel wood output of the country. About 3.5 million people depend directly or indirectly for their livelihood on Sundarbans resources. If we consider Sundarban in environmental and ecological perspective, Sundarban serves the bioshields against the cyclones (tropical storms) and high tidal surges. It provides protection against coastal erosion and damage. It stabilises the coastal land by trapping sediments. Moreover, the Sundarban could be a large carbon sink to mitigate global warming and offset the greenhouse gas emissions. The belt of Sundarban mangroves is capable of absorbing 70-90 percent of the energy of a normal wave and 30-40 percent of the total force of a tsunami or cyclone-generated shock-waves before they hit the inhabited areas. This is the pick season of tourism in Bangladesh because now there is no cyclone, tidal wave or heavy rainfall. Weather is humid and comfortable for visiting Sundarban. Different tour operators are offering lucrative packages to attract both of domestic and international tourists. But the offers are falling through the cracks because tourists are afraid of ongoing tumultuous situation. Although there is no natural impediment to visit Sundarban, unfortunately our country is passing critical manmade political disaster for upcoming poll. Current political turmoil is a horrible threat for countrys economy as well as tourism. Incessant hartal, strike and vandalising are diminishing the countrys economic growth, increasing anxiety in the mind of tour operators. This is high time to think about the countries development through earning foreign revenue from tourism sector. The writer is a MBA student of Dept. of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Dhaka University-

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