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Inadequacy, Problems and Barriers of Cox’s Bazar

Security and Safety

The concerned agencies of the Bangladesh government are not doing enough to improve
the tourist safety and security of the locations. As a result, many unexpected accidents
are taking place at Cox’s Bazar. A total of 111 kilometers area out of 120 kilometers
tourist spot in Cox’s Bazar is completely unsafe and unmanned. And the patrol service in
the remaining 9 kilometers is not sufficient.
Some voluntary organizations are operating life guard services but their preparations
are not enough. Tourism experts opined that in any world class sea beach, five safety
measures - watch tower, life boat, life guard, specialist swimmers and adjacent hospitals
are a must to ensure tourists’ safety, but it’s a matter of great regret that there is serious
scarcity of these facilities. Government has established Tourist Police, a specialized force
to provide security to the tourists, but during the peak season of tourism only 126
Tourist Police officials work to provide security.
Local Transportation and Road Infrastructure
Disappointing with local transportation services and road infrastructure. Despite good
bus linkages between cox’s bazar and other parts of the country, the local transport for
movement is not suitable. Damaged and dilapidated roads network with traffic
congestion is also observed in tourist area. At present, rickshaws and easy bikes are
common and available everywhere, but the fare is not regulated by an appropriate
authority. This gives an opportunity to exploit passengers; particularly those are first-
time visitors. On the other hand, air traffic is highly in frequent, a railway is totally
absent and there exists hardly any means to visit the area rapidly.
Nightlife and Recreational Activities
Recreational activities on the beach are too meagre. There are no nightlife activities in
Cox’s Bazar. No one knows how this can be started. The government tourism policy
planners are in a quandary, while the private tour operators are scared to do anything
there because of the rigid attitudes of the district administration.
Information
Virtually there is no tourist information center in common places for tourists. Even
trained tourist guide, city guide map, tourist maps and signposts were almost absent.
Local people, beach cameramen, hawkers and rickshaws puller willingly provide
information for the tourist and sometimes act as tour guide but these services do not
come often without trouble.
Accommodation
Comfortable accommodation with a convenient price plays a significant role in
popularizing any tourist destination. During the peak season between November and
April, accommodation cost becomes high due to a huge influx of national and
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international tourists. During the peak season, many visitors spend their nights inside
their vehicle due to unavailability of rooms in the hotels.
Cleanliness
Cox's Bazar is gradually turning into a polluted place for its unplanned growth, poor
waste management and sewerage system. Cox's Bazar beach is facing a severe
environmental crisis. The trash is first dumped on the beach until it becomes a tall pile,
and then it is burned on sand dunes and in the wooded Jhawbagan area. It pollute not
only the beach but also the nearby areas as well. There are also many unsanitary toilets
on and near the beach. The two main tourist spots in the city, Laboni beach point and
Sugondha Sea Inn beach point, have been hit the hardest with this insurmountable
amount of pollution.
Health and Emergency Service
It has been observed both health and emergency service such as life boat, first aid,
ambulance and other emergency services are insufficient. Among the survey
respondents, some 35% did not find health and emergency facilities in the tourist area.
Another 20% opined that health service is very bad. Also, wash room facilities and
public toilet services are very sporadic. Separate wash room facilities for women are
largely absent in the beach area. Consequently, tourists were dissatisfied with health,
emergency and wash room services.
Construction Boom
The entire landscape has changed and hundreds of high-rise hotel buildings, apartment
blocks and restaurants have mushroomed in the area. On the main beach itself, there
are dozens of shops selling souvenirs, toys, clothes and fast food. Hotels and restaurants
are being erected in almost every part of the town and in nearby beach areas as the
construction boom continues. Environmentalists fear if the illegally built buildings
along the main beach are not removed soon, the area may never recover and its beauty
will be lost forever. Many government buildings have also been built on the beach area.
Recreational Facilities
Tourists expressed divergent feelings on recreational facilities. In fact, tourists were
delighted with beach recreational facilities and some other recreational facilities in hotel
compounds (e.g. Spa, bar, barbecue, watersports, swimming pool, children amusement,
restaurant, coffee shop, gymnasium, and indoor games), nevertheless general
recreational facilities for mass tourists are virtually absent or not adequate; as a result,
tourists show less interest in staying longer.
Changing Rooms
Considering our social context there should be enough changing rooms near the sea
beach area but except for Laboni and Inani sea beach areas there is no fresh room
available for the tourists. Again some of the available fresh rooms are unusable.
Food Hygiene
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Study found except for some brand rating hotels and restaurants, most other restaurant
serve cheap dishes and undermine food safety and hygiene. Tourists were concerned
about food hygiene.
Multicultural Food
In Cox’s Bazar, multicultural food is absent and vegetarians do not feel comfortable, as
vegetarian food is not readily available. Lack of availability of ethnic and minor
community’s foods was also observed. Dry fish (Shutki) is a common dish served in
many restaurants at Cox’s Bazar tourist areas, but many cannot eat as hygiene is not
proper in such food.
Unplanned Way
The whole area is being developed in an unplanned way. The beach area has been
encroached and hundreds of buildings have sprung up there, causing a negative effect
on the environment. Infrastructure activities, especially the construction of hotels and
motels, are going on unabated. Some of the hotels are even touching the beach. New
hotels with attractive facilities are announcing their arrivals regularly. Hundreds of new
buildings have sprung up in recent years, giving it the look of another concrete jungle
like Dhaka.
Number of Visitors
The increasing number of visitors is also having an impact on the marine environment.
Activists say many tourists take coral home as souvenirs. As a result, traders and locals
frequently collect corals and sea shells from nearby islands like St Martin's. What is
more visible to visitors is the pollution in and around Cox's Bazar's. As it attracts
millions of tourists, tones of empty packaging and plastic water bottles are strewn across
the beach area.
Government Monitoring
The city has become a business hub for a portion of its inhabitants. From the auto
rickshaw drivers, rickshaw pullers, food and souvenir shop owners, cheap hotel
managers to street vendors, all are busy to make quick profit from the tourists. It seems
that there is no government monitoring on the increasing number of vehicles and hotels
or rest houses.
Promoting Our Tourism Sector.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Cox’s Bazar has been decreasing gradually over
the past few years, as the tourist facilities in Cox’s Bazar are yet to reach a level that can
meet the expectations of the foreigners. Only a small amount of tourists mostly from the
United States, United Kingdom, China, Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan, Nepal and some
other countries arrive in the coastal town during the peak season. Unfortunately, the
20,000 expatriates who are living in this country don’t travel to Cox’s Bazar. It seems
that we have failed to attract the foreigners towards our eye-catching sea beach. They
mostly spend their holidays in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and
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Nepal. If we could bring the foreign workers and other foreign tourists in Cox’s Bazar,
we could promote our tourism sector.
There are many landlocked countries and their people love to spend leisure at the sea
beach. We have failed to use our foreign embassies to bring tourists from these countries
and promote our tourism sector. We could establish tourism offices in the countries like
China, Japan, UK, USA, Australia and Nederland because these countries produce more
than 70% of the world’s tourists.
Threats Of Nearby Hills
The problems are not confined to the seaside - nearby hills are also facing threats. Trees
are being cut indiscriminately on the hillside and lands are also cleared to make way for
buildings. As a result, we witness frequent landslides during monsoon period killing
many people.

Different roles and responsibilities that need to work hand to hand

Tourists
Spread positive word of mouth regarding Cox's bazar.
Play role as a tourist referral.
Recommending others to visit Cox's bazar.
Collect souvenir from cox’s bazaar for friends and relatives, colleagues etc.

Local community
Welcome the tourist in territory warmly.
Share local culture, belief, history and tradition.
Spread positive word of mouth.
Treat tourists as a family member.

DMO
Ensure harmony of infrastructural development.
Maintain cleanliness of the Sea beach.
Establish information center at different spot of the destination.

Hotelier
Provide quality service according to commitment.

Tour operator
Ensure safety, security and standard of service.

Tourist guide
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Spread positive word of mouth about Cox's bazar Sea beach.

Share every positive things about Cox's bazar about Sea beach.
Study everything such as culture, language of tourists before arrival.

Government
Ensure proper infrastructure and superstructures development.
Take effective promotional program.

Tourist police
Act as a tourist guide not as a police.
Ensure security in the Cox's bazar Sea beach.

Need To Do

Develop infrastructure or easy access; develop land and water transport facilities for
sightseeing tours and cruising; install water sports facilities; develop typical Rakhayne
ethnic community for cultural events; develop certain suitable portion of the beach as
Special and Exclusive Tourist Area; establish casino only for foreign tourists; and build
up community awareness.

Government should establish separate zones for the foreign tourists. They don’t like
makeshift stalls and vendors in and around the beach. Cultural difference creates
diverse choices of food and clothing. Sometimes when foreigners go to take a bath in the
beach people gather around them and they feel disturbed. Foreign tourists want quality
evening life, but we can’t meet their demands.

We have to aware of garbage piling on the beach and the regular burning of trash.
Should to raise an awareness campaign, with posters and signboards, in settlements and
slums near the beach. Ban single-use plastic products in coastal areas, hotels, motels
and restaurants in one year as they are health and environmental hazards.

Order to remove all unauthorized structures from Cox's Bazar beach, hundreds of
buildings and shops still remain. Have to form a committee to identify buildings and
other structures which should be removed from the main beach area.

There should be strict rules to prevent pollution on the beach. We can see garbage in
many places and we should stop polluting this beautiful place.

Low cost accommodations such as hostels and bed and breakfast can be made for the
backpacker tourist, youth tourist, non-institutionalized tourist or budget
preference/economy tourist. Prevalence of short duration of staying of tourists at the
resorts indicated that staying was costly and somewhat unaffordable.
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Security, quality transportation service, watch tower facility, water base activities, health
and area guiding services must be provided to the tourist who are visiting Coax’s bazaar
sea beach.

We need to increase the number of police. For one kilometer sea beach area only three
police members, one watch tower, 2 speed boats are employed for managing,
monitoring and maintaining emergency service and security. These are not sufficient for
maintaining security and saving lives from unexpected hazards.

It is necessary to keep a tourist for at least a week and expansion of existing recreational
facilities and the development of various artificial recreational facilities to be must so
that the visitors can stay longer. Such facilities include various sports, theatre, dance
and music, various destinations with diversified attractions, good shopping facilities.
Natural parks, water parks and museum are also important for attracting and keeping
tourist.

Make sure strong network coverage; nonetheless, they were disappointed with slow
internet services. A huge number of tourists were from different professional groups like
businessmen, technocrats, public servants, private service holders, teacher and students
who require communication services for urgent business and most importantly required
access to social media (e.g. Facebook, twitter, YouTube) for instantly sharing travel
experience to their friends and others.

Food consumption and convenient accommodation are important part of tourism

industries. Discontent with food and accommodation may lead to dissatisfaction with
the destination and tourist may not returned to or recommend the place further.

Artificial recreational facilities and number of destination with diverse attraction should
be developed for mass tourist so that tourists stay for at least a week.

The concerned authority for this destination needs to allocate a suitable budget to be
used to improve the sea beach activities, restaurants and signage, especially during the
peak seasons, because of the bigger number of tourists are visiting this place at that
time. Thus, any future infrastructure development should be properly planned and
implemented to avoid its negative impacts to the sea beach area.

It’s Require total development of the region as well as enhance competitiveness of those
sectors that directly or indirectly involved in tourism. Although development of various
multi-storied hotel projects has been observed in the resort area, it seems that
development of tourism does not only mean developing hotels or
tourist accommodation.

Destination managers and other market players should pay close attention to enhancing

their existing services and expansion of other facilities that were negatively evaluated by
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the tourists. Global competitiveness in tourism industries increases and the challenges

will be faced in the years to come.

As resource constraints by the government have been observed, investors, market

players and beneficiaries from this sector should come forward to advance all-round
development of the tourism sector particularly in the region and the country as a whole.

Media concerned authority should take initiative to promote Cox’s Bazaar to all over the
world through proper media. Although the tourist attractions and facilities have
somewhat been promoted in the mass media (e.g., television, newspaper, and internet)
as well as by word-of-mouth but these are not sufficient to attract tourists. Marketers
and patrons of this destination should stress on carrying out promotional campaigns of
Cox’s Bazar sea beach in Bangladesh as a world longest sea beach to foreigners.
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Inadequacy, Problems and Barriers of Sundarbans

Safety & Security

Safety and security for tourists in Sundarban is not so updated. Comparison chart
between drivers of destination branding & Sundarban The above figure shows the
comparison between the drivers of destination & Sundarban.
Information Accessibility
Lack of quality information on Sundarbans on tour operator websites.
Khulna hotel information on Sundarbans.
Khulna Sundarbans Forest Information Center.
Lack of guides for day tours in Mongla.
Boat Transportation
Inadequate safety equipment on day tour vessels.
Lack of well-presented system for hiring boats.
Lack of availability of trained guides.
The potential of a boating accident in Mongla is relatively high. There are
inadequate safety procedures, and none of the day tour boats are carrying enough
life preservers, safety vests, or first aid kits.
Visitor Management
No well-structured areas for picnics.
Poor rest room facilities.
Poor waste management.
Dangerous jetties.
No visitor management planning.
No reinvestment of fees into site.
Continued degradation of visitor sites caused by tourism impacts.
Real possibility of accidents caused by poor visitor facilities, such as dangerous
jetties.
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Creation of vicious cycle of destruction of visitor sites and poor attitudes from

visitors who do not learn to respect the places they are visiting, due to lack
of visitor management and available information or guidance.

Community Benefits
Lack of training in communities.
Tourism income only from Nov-March.
Site Specific Protection
Impacts on flora & fauna at all sites
Waste/littering in all sites
Sewage run-off in Karamjal
Erosion from boat traffic/docking
Escalating damage to Karamjal creating unsanitary, eroded facility without
proper provision for rapidly increasing numbers of tourists coming annually
Uncontrolled activities of large groups (exceeding permissible group size of 50)
during peak season
Lack of awareness among local visitors regarding their impacts on the fragile
ecosystem

Threats

Tiger Poaching
The tiger is the top predator and often termed the keystone species, umbrella
species as well as the flagship species. However, this supreme predator is under
serious threats due to poaching and indiscriminate illegal killing for meat, skins,
bones and other body parts. Tiger poaching in the Bangladesh Sundarban, which
had been unnoticed and purposively denied by the authority since long, has
recently seen a boom and come to wider national and international attention.
Deer Poaching
Poaching of spotted deer from the Sundarban is rampant. However, we all know
that the spotted deer plays a pivotal role in Sundarban terrestrial ecosystem. It
has been the main prey animal for our tigers. 
Wood collection
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The Sundarban terrestrial habitat has been degraded over time, probably in part
due to harvesting trees beyond the replenishment capacity of the forest, including
both legal and illegal extraction. Wood collection is considered a contributing
factor to the degradation of habitats in terms of forest cover, species diversity,
and ecosystem functioning.
Sea Level Rise
The impact of Sea Level Rise (SLR) as a result of global climate change could
be catastrophic to the Bangladesh Sundarban including the country’s whole range
of low lying coastal belts. For the Sundarban habitat, SLR has been noted as a
serious threat, with current predictions suggesting substantial loss of habitat over
the next 50 years. 
Upstream Water Extraction or Divergence
Biophysical and ecological variables of the Sundarban including ecosystems are
highly complex. Functioning of this highly intricate ecosystem is directly linked to
the intermixing of freshwater flow from upstream and the contiguous marine
tidal water. Any perturbation in the freshwater flow disturbs the whole process of
nutrient flow and also the “envelope” of the physicochemical environment.

Reduce Inadequacy, Problems, Barriers and

Increasing the Opportunities
Information Accessibility
Improved websites for specialist tour operators with offices in Dhaka
Improved Visitor Center in Khulna via small investment in Sundarbans Forest
Information Center
Improved guiding services for day tours from Mongla
Improved information provision from hotels in Khulna

Boat Transportation
Development of program for day tour vessel operators via the existing
associations to formalize booking system for boats, guide training, safety
procedures, and customer service including information available on board or at
time of booking.
Visitor Management
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Review of previous proposals or plans for development of visitor management

plans for key visitor sites in Sundarbans, including Katka & Karamjal using
expertise of Forest Department officers working on site.
Cooperation with private sector to develop more appropriate facilities,
in public/private management approach or licensing visitor sites to private sector
for development, revenue gathering and reinvestment into sites.

Community Benefits
Training for community members to develop more effective tourism enterprises.
Guide training for community members/boat operators to work in SRF.
Microenterprise financing to create more viable local micro enterprises targeting
domestic visitors.
Increased income for honey collectors through strategies to provide profit
sharing.
Site Specific Protection
Creation of appropriate infrastructure for visitors including properly functioning
toilets with acceptable septic systems where appropriate, provision of waste bins
and appropriate disposal of waste.
Improvement of visitor information
Training of guides in Mongla or Chandpai to accompany visitors in Karamjal.
Education of tourists in visitor center and by guides to protect natural resources.
Training of guards to request the visitors do not feed animals or harm trees.
Formalize Voluntary Code of Conduct for tour operators.

Common Problems That Need To Solve

Reduced flow of sweet water into Sundarban mangrove system.
Extension of non-forestry land use into mangrove forest.
Straying of tiger into villages along the western boundary of Sundarban.
Demand for small timber and fuel wood for local consumption.
Poaching of tiger, spotted deer, wild boar, marine turtles, horse shoe crab etc.
Uncontrolled collection of prawn seedlings.
Uncontrolled fishing in the water of Reserve Forests.
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Continuous trampling of river/creek banks by fishermen and prawn seed collectors.

Chemical pollution through marine paints and hydrocarbons.
Long International Border along the Eastern boundary of Indian Sundarban.

Development process

Organizing and planning effectively for tourism growth. 

Adopt a special tourism guide plan for the area, consulted with and agreed by
local communities and public sector partners.
Streamline tourist security and movement to the departments responsible for
security to agree on a clear policy, processes and roles for dealing with tourist
security. Assess the process of issuing international entry permits to Sundarban
and improve processes and time frames for issuing security clearances. To
involve local communities in a program of community volunteerism, to look out
for safety of visitors, provide them with information and advice, etc.
Provide a business environment encouraging to tourism growth to formulate a
tourism development policy for Sundarban District as a binding policy that
directs the efforts of all public and private sector entities.
Developing attractive and sustainable tourism products and services
Improve and expand the range of experiences, facilities and services in line with
target market needs to launch a continuous tourism development and investment
program for expanding and maintaining the range of tourism products and
experiences and building the capacity of local tourism service providers.
Priorities should include improving and expanding tourist accommodation;
improving food quality, hygiene and variety with a focus on promoting women’s
traditional skills; mapping, signposting and landscaping of walking and hiking
trails; developing picnic sites; providing toilets and rest facilities at main tourist
sites; improved banking facilities.
Improve tourism business and investment conditions based on the proposed
special development guide plan, investigate, formulate and approve a program
and package of public-private-community tourism investment support. To
establish an enterprise training and mentoring program and where possible
involve more successful and established local and national business owners as
mentors.
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Improve packaging of tourism experiences on Map GPS coordinates of

all attractions and experiences in Sundarban and develop a database with short
descriptions, directions, photographs and video clips of each
experience/attraction
Improve product and service quality to conduct an audit of each tourist site and
visitor area in Sundarban, identify gaps in quality of visitor facilities and start a
program of site improvements.
Conserve and protect the natural resources and biodiversity of the area. o
Support NGOs and relevant government ministries in raising environmental
awareness among tourism enterprises and encouraging sustainable
environmental practices such as anti-littering, fuel-efficient cooking, and solar
energy usage to Conduct an audit of waste management practices and collaborate
with local communities and authorities to improve waste management practices
and technologies.
Maximizing local participation and benefits
Support community-based tourism investment to agree on a policy and
ownership model for community-based investment support, identify
communities.
Strengthen local supply chains to Identify local products that are suitable for the
tourism market, engage local communities in discussing and agreeing on value-
adding opportunities for such products and improve quality, packaging,
branding.
Develop local tourism skills and human resources to develop and present short,
practical training courses for local tourism providers in Sundarban Upazillas. The
training initiatives should make a special effort to involve local women.