DAFFODIL INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 10, ISSUE 1-2, JULY 2015
11
PROSPECTS OF E-TOURISM ECOSYSTEM IN BANGLADESH:
SERVICES AND INFRASTRUCTURE
M. Nazmul Hasan1, Md. Ismail Jabiullah2,
Inam Ahamed3, Nishan Chakma4
1, 3
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Daffodil International University, Bangladesh
2
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Hamdard University, Bangladesh
4
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Asian University of Bangladesh
E-mail: nazmulchp@yahoo.com, inamahamed@live.com
E-mail: mijjabi@yahoo.com, E-mail: nishanchakma@gmail.com
Abstract: e-Tourism is the application of
technology through digitalization of all activities
associated with tourism industry. It takes both eCommerce and e-Business approaches into
account. This paper aims at launching a sustainable
e-Tourism infrastructure along with possible
online-based services, which is appropriate for the
ecosystem of Bangladesh. The study is conducted by
comparing between domestic and foreign
ecosystems and statistical analysis of some vital
tourists information including tourist numbers,
earnings, purpose of visits and number of internet
users. A proposal has also been made on the list of
services such as packages and prices, tour
guideline and plans, tour maps, tour essential lists,
online booking facilities, confirmation feedbacks,
list of tourist places, locations with pictures, local
agent point addresses etc. In addition, a
comparative study has been made based on
different
e-Tourism
websites
observation,
influential factors and survey on the tourists
demand. On top of that, it clearly demonstrates a
statistical analysis on the growth and development
of tourism sector after switching from manual to
automated system on visitors and foreign exchange
earnings perspectives. Moreover, it focuses a wellorganized and balanced infrastructure for the
tourism environment of Bangladesh and for the
planner to develop tourism industry, which will in
turn generate more revenue. At the end, this paper
establishes a map for future improvement, the
process of attracting foreign visitors by highlighting
the tourism industry of Bangladesh around the
world.
Keywords: Tourism, E-Tourism, ICT, Ecosystem,
Sustainable, Services, Infrastructure
Date of submission : 20. 11.2014
Date of acceptance : 16. 04. 2015
1. Introduction
No doubt that in modern business world
Tourism is the leading and rapid expanding
industry. It has a crucial influence on economic
development of a country. Now-a-days
Bangladesh is a new tourist destination on the
world map. To develop Tourism, Bangladesh
has massive potential because of its attractive
natural beauty and rich cultural tradition.
At the present time online tourism is a new
concept to expand tourism sector so that it can
act as a key aspect for the economic growth
and to reach in its ambition.
Tourism can append significance in the
Bangladeshi economy if a sustainable etourism infrastructure for the ecosystem of
Bangladesh is implemented with most possible
online based services for tourists. An initiative
to develop a sustainable and equitable online
tourism sector in emerging markets in
Bangladesh is needed so that Bangladesh can
reach in its goal named ‘Bangladesh Tourism
Vision-2020’.
This research aims to launch a sustainable eTourism infrastructure apposite for the
ecosystem of Bangladesh with possible online
based services and based on comparison
among domestic & foreign ecosystem and
statistical analysis on Number of tourists,
Earnings, Purpose of visit and Number of
Internet users perspective.
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PROSPECTS OF E-T OURISM ECOSYSTEM IN BANGLADESH: SERVICES AND I NFRASTRUCTURE
Tourism researchers think that to full fill the
above mentioned objective proper role and
specific initiative by the government is a must
including both private and public cooperation.
1.1 Research Query and Related Issues
For this study the research question is a
sustainable e-Tourism infrastructure apposite
for the ecosystem of Bangladesh with possible
online based services and based on comparison
among domestic & foreign ecosystem and
statistical analysis on Number of tourists,
Earnings, Purpose of visit and Number of
Internet user’s perspective is needed.
Every business movement is judged in
domestic and foreign earnings perspective and
e-Tourism is an e-Commerce approach and as
well as an e-Business approaches.
Earnings in tourism industry depend on
Number of Tourists or visitors visited, means
Number of tourists or visitors influence
earnings and their relation is analogous.
“Number of internet user influences eTourism” it is not only a thinking of us but also
a thinking of the world. If number of internet
user increases than number of tourist will
increase automatically.
In March 2011, a summit held in Indonesia on
e-Tourism. The main theme of that conference
was “Enhance Internet usage for the online
marketing strategy within tourism industry”
1.2 Research Background
Tourism industry is a key aspect for the
economic growth of Bangladesh but still now it
does not reach in its ambition. Although
several studies have been conducted to
investigate the problems and opportunities of
the tourism development of Bangladesh but an
initiative to develop a sustainable and equitable
online tourism sector in emerging markets in
Bangladesh is needed. Beside this launching a
sustainable e-Tourism infrastructure apposite
for the ecosystem of Bangladesh with possible
online based services and based on comparison
among domestic & foreign ecosystem and
statistical analysis on Number of tourists,
Earnings, Purpose of visit and Number of
Internet users perspective is required.
1.3 Research Objectives
(a) Launching e-Tourism as a key aspect for
the economic growth of developing
country like Bangladesh;
(b) Support e-Tourism business in becoming a
recognizable sector of the travel and
tourism market;
(c) Establish a well organized and sustainable
e-Tourism
infrastructure
for
the
environment of Bangladesh;
(d) Highlight most possible online based
services for tourists;
(e) Represent variation of Number of tourists
and earnings in between Tourism and eTourism approach by statistical analysis.
2. Literature and Work Review
A number of studies have been conducted to
explore the problems and opportunities of the
tourism development of Bangladesh.
2.1 Literature Review
Ahmed (1986) has criticized in his study that
despite all the efforts and measures of the
government, the BPC and other private firms,
the tourism industry in Bangladesh had not yet
taken off, got a solid footing, and been able to
give a true sense direction towards its
development.
Pannell Kerr Froster Associate (1998) has
mentioned its comprehensive report on the
Strategic Master Plan for Tourism in
Bangladesh that for the development of
infrastructure, national airlines, and overall
tourism in the country.
In another study, Hasan (1992) has described
the tourism industry of Bangladesh and
analyzed its potential market and marketing
strategies.
Hasan and Chowdhury (1995) have critically
analyzed the state of hotel and restaurant
services and their role in the development of
tourism in Bangladesh.
DAFFODIL INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 10, ISSUE 1-2, JULY 2015
Hossain (1999) has considered the tourism as a
complete industry like other.
A current strand of research in e-Tourism is the
delivery of content to mobile devices. This is
especially important for on-trip assistance of
travelers as addressed in (Nielsen 2004).
Chiu and Leung (2005), for instance, have
designed a virtual enterprise of independent
tourism service providers as a multi-agent
system.
Nargis Khan (2012) proposed an optimized
business model G2B2C for e-Tourism. [1-13]
2.2 Work Review
A comparative study with the existing systems
is represented by Tables 1 and 2, where Table
1 shows comparison among existing systems
and Table 2 shows list of sites for survey with
their business.
2.3 Influencing Factors
Factors influencing Tourism and e-Tourism are
classified into two categories(a) Indigenous and (b) Exogenous
(a) Indigenous factors include- Economic
Factors, Technological Factors, Political
Factors, Demographic Factors, Cultural
Factors, Environment and weather etc.
(b) Exogenous factors includes- Customer
behavior, Tour intention etc.
(i)
Economical factors includes- Price and
Cost, Money exchange rate, Cost of
certain vacations, Economic prosperity
can encourage people to take more trips,
Good economic time, people have more
discretionary income (money left over
after paying taxes & basic living
expenses), Financial Security, Taxes,
economic relation between countries etc.
(ii) Technological factors includes- Service
Quality,
Convenient
Lodging,
Adventure, Security, Effective &
efficient
transportation
and
accommodation, Safe & Quality food,
Shopping facility, more tourist facilities,
Developments
in
information
technologies (internet), Read, Reliable
13
and update information, Online payment,
enough services in e-Tourism sites etc.
(iii) Political Factors includes- Tourists avoid
areas of political unrest, if a region is
politically stable it can influence the
number of visitors, Reports of terrorism
or high crime rates, political relation
between countries etc.
(iv) Demographic
Factors
includescharacteristics & background of a
country’s population can influence travel
patterns, Number of women in work
force, Number of single adults, getting
married and having children later etc.
(v) Cultural Factors includes- Ancient
culture of a country can draw people like
a magnet, People find ancient
civilizations fascinating, Socio-cultural
relation between countries etc.
(vi) Environment and weather factors
include- Natural Beauty, Weather or
climate condition etc.
(vii) Others include- Known Destination,
Multi language, amount of leisure time,
holidays,
government
rules
and
regulations etc.
(viii) Customer Behavior and Tour Intention
includes- Age, Gender, Regional
Difference, Ethnic and Religious
Difference, personality, motivation etc.
3. Research Methodology
The theme is chosen & fix up depending on the
growing demand of tourism industry and to
launch a sustainable e-Tourism infrastructure
for the growth of Bangladesh as a vital sector.
The proposed online based Services are come
from different e-Tourism website observation,
influencing factors and survey on the tourists
demand.
Then the required data for analysis are
collected
from
Bangladesh
Parjatan
Corporation, Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh
Bureau of Statistics and from Internet.
After that the comparative study on the
properties of the existing domestic and foreign
e-Tourism ecosystem is done by e-Tourism
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PROSPECTS OF E-T OURISM ECOSYSTEM IN BANGLADESH: SERVICES AND I NFRASTRUCTURE
website observation, paper review, influencing
factors and survey on the tourism planning for
the upcoming years.
Finally the proposed infrastructure is
constructed based on the environment of
Bangladesh, payment method, user friendly
system, statistical analysis on number of
tourists & earnings perspective and
comparative study on the properties of the
existing domestic and foreign e-Tourism
ecosystem.
4.2.1 Foreign Visitors Arrival by Year
At the beginning Figure 1 represents a statistics
of foreign visitor’s arrival by years 2006 to
2010 where in 2008 the number was increases
and in 2006 it was decreased. Here data for
analysis are collected from Bangladesh Bank.
Foreign Visitors Arrival by Year
500000
400000
300000
4.1
Comparison
among
e-Tourism
ecosystems of countries (in year 2011)
Table 3 shows a reciprocal comparison among
existing e-Tourism ecosystems of different
countries. Here the comparison factors are
Better controlled websites, Google craze,
Mobile computing, Online transaction,
Comprehensive and appropriate tourism
information, Business process for marketing,
booking, purchasing of tourism products,
appropriate ICT solution, fully interconnected
e-business network, bandwidth etc.
No. of Visitors
200000
%Changes
100000
0
2006
2008
2009
2010
Y ear
Figure 1: Foreign visitor’s arrival by year (Source:
Bangladesh Bank)
In Figures 2 and 3, information about foreign
visitor’s arrival by present and upcoming years
in average and best case is signified.
No. of Visitors (Avarage Case)
700000
610218
600000
530624
461412
500000
401228
400000 348894
No. of Visitors
300000
200000
100000
0
2012
4.2 Statistical Analysis and Findings
In this section, statistical analysis on foreign
visitor’s arrival by year, foreign exchange
earnings from tourism and other travels by
year, percentage of computer and internet users
and their impact on tourism are shown.
2007
-100000
N o . o f V is it o rs
4. Analysis and Findings
A detail survey on the collected data from
Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, Bangladesh
Bank, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and
from internet is accomplished. Then a
statistical analysis is done in worse, average
and best case. After that an assessment is
performed by making comparison among
existing e-Tourism ecosystems of different
countries. There are important findings from
the analysis. In addition to the above, the
impact of internet users for the enlargement of
tourism industry is also shown through
analysis.
2013
2014
2015
2016
Year
Figure 2: Foreign visitor’s arrival by year (Present
and upcoming years) - Average Case
DAFFODIL INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 10, ISSUE 1-2, JULY 2015
Table 3 Foreign exchange earnings from
tourism and other travels (Present and
upcoming years) - Best Case
No. of Visitors (Best Case)
4000000
3385094
3500000
15
N o . o f V is itirs
3000000
2500000
2089564
2000000
No. of Visitors
1289854
1500000
1000000
796206
491485
500000
0
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Year
Figure 3: Foreign visitor’s arrival by year (Present
and upcoming years) - Best Case
4.2.2 Foreign Exchange Earnings from
Tourism & Other Travels
Similarly, Table 1 indicates a figure of foreign
exchange earnings from tourism and other
travels by years 2007 to 2011. The amount was
high in 2008 and low in 2010. The required
information is collected from Bangladesh
Bank.
Year
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Foreign Exchange in (Million TK)
6239.45
7237.762
8395.80392
9739.132547
11297.39375
4.2.3 Percentage of Computer and Internet
Users
The percentage of computer and internet
users in Bangladesh are presented in Figure
4 and information are collected
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
from
Percentage of Computer & Internet User in Bangladesh
30
Table 1 Foreign exchange earnings from
tourism and other travels (Source: Bangladesh
Bank
Am ount
25
20
% Computer
15
% Internet
10
5
Tables 2 and 3 illustrate foreign exchange
earnings from tourism and other travels at
present and upcoming years in average and
best case.
Table 2 Foreign exchange earnings from
tourism and other travels (Present and
upcoming years) - Average Case
Year
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Foreign Exchange in (Million
TK)
6239.45
6426.6335
6619.432505
6818.01548
7022.555945
r
rs
he
Ot
r
ee
c to
g in
En
te
Gr
ad
Po
st
Do
te
ua
C
ua
Gr
ad
HS
C/
SS
-V
VI ss
C la
%
Changes
-4.8
16.32
-5.92
-3.46
12.16
ss
I
Foreign Exchange in
(Million TK)
5265.19
6124.52
5762.24
5562.94
6239.45
C la
Year
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
IX
0
User
Figure 4: Percentage of computer and internet
users in Bangladesh (Source: Bangladesh Bureau of
Statistics, Bangladesh)
In the same way Table 4 shows a pictorial view
of percentage of internet users in the world.
Table 4 Percentage of internet users around the
world
Africa
America
Arab States
Asia and Pacific
Commonwealth of Independent
States
Europe
13%
56%
29%
27%
48%
74%
4.2.5 Impact of Internet Users on Tourism
In Figures 5 and 6, an overview of impact of
internet users on tourism is noticeably exposed.
Where the impact is applied on both number of
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PROSPECTS OF E-T OURISM ECOSYSTEM IN BANGLADESH: SERVICES AND I NFRASTRUCTURE
foreign visitors and foreign exchange earnings
from tourism and other travels in worse and
average case.
Comperative Study after applying e-Tourism on No. of Foreign
Vis itors
900000
800000
N o . o f Visito rs
700000
ix. Local Agent Point (List and Address)
x. Discount/Promotion/Special Offer
5.1 e-Tourism Task Scenario
The task scenario of the proposed model is
described in Figure 7. There are seven
consecutive steps to complete the task.
No. of Visitors
600000
500000
Applying e-Tourism (w orse
case)
400000
300000
Applying e-Tourism
(average case)
200000
100000
0
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Year
Figure 5: Foreign visitors arrival by year (Present
and upcoming years) - Worse and Average Case
Com perative Study on Foreign Exchnge Earning after applying eTourism
12000
10000
Foreign Exchange in (Million
TK)
Am o unt
8000
Applying e-Tourism (w orse
case)
6000
4000
Applying e-Tourism
(average case)
2000
0
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Year
Figure 6: Foreign exchange earnings from tourism
and other travels (Present and upcoming years) Worse and Average Case
4.3 Important and Implemented Factors of
Proposed Model
The required necessary factors of an ideal eTourism model and implemented factors in the
proposed model are demonstrated in this
segment communally. The above mentioned
illustration is shown in Table 8 without any
complicacy.
5. Proposed Infrastructure
Proposed Services through e-Tourism:
i. Tourist Places with List, Location, Pictures
ii. Packages and Prices
iii. Tour Guideline and Plans
iv. Tour Map
v. Tour Essentials
vi. Online Booking
vii. Confirmation Feedback (Mail)
viii. Customer Feedback
Figure 7: e-Tourism task scenario
Steps of Proceeding:
Step-1: Tourist will visit in the site for tour
packages and tour related information.
Step-2: Tourist will get tour packages with
price, tour guideline from the site and also the
local agent list from the site.
Step-3: Tourist will contact with the local
agent for online booking. Local agent may be
of tourism agencies own agent or not.
Step-4: Agent will contact to the tourism
agency for approval.
Step-5: After confirmation a confirmation
message will go to the tourist e-mail.
Step-6: Tourism agency will contact to the
travel and accommodation agent. It can be of
their own agent or not.
DAFFODIL INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 10, ISSUE 1-2, JULY 2015
Step-7: Travel and Accommodation agent will
confirm travel and accommodation facility to
the tourism agency for the tourist.
5.2 Mode of Payment
The payment method of the proposed model is
demonstrated in Figure 8. There are five
successive steps to complete the payment.
Figure 8: Mode of payment
Steps of Proceeding:
Step-1: Tourist will pay the required payment
to the local agent.
Step-2: Local Agent will pay to the tourism
agency.
Step-3: After getting the payment tourism
agency will confirm the tour by sending a
confirmation message to the tourist’s e-mail.
Step-4: Travel Agency will pay to the Travel
and Accommodation agent for Travel and
Accommodation facility.
Step-5: After getting the payment Travel and
Accommodation agent will confirm to the
tourism agency.
5.3 Sample Input and Output
The sample input and output are as followsInput: Tourist Information, Required Payment,
Agent Information etc.
Output: Hit Count, Total Bookings, Local
Agent Contact Information, Packages and
Price details, Tour Plan, Tour Map, Tour
Essentials, Special Offer, News and Events,
Account
details,
Customer
Feedback,
Confirmation Feedback etc.
17
5.4 Reports
The generated reports are given below:
(a) Number of Bookings (Weekly,
Monthly, Yearly)
(b) Local Agent List
(c) Packages and Price List
(d) Account Summary
(e) Number of Visitors in the site
(Weekly, Monthly, Yearly)
6. Conclusion and Recommendation
This survey will focus a well organized and
balanced infrastructure for the tourism
environment of Bangladesh and for the planner
to develop tourism industry and to earn more
annual revenue. It will also be handy for
tourism agency.
The statistical analysis will focus on the
situation after switching from manual system,
improvement of annual revenue and number of
visitors per year in different cases.
It will also helpful to find out its impact on
GDP and annual revenue of the government.
This analysis will also establish a map for
future improvement, the process of attracting
foreign visitors and to highlight the tourism
industry of Bangladesh around the world.
6.1 Contribution
(a) Comparative study on existing systems
(b) Comparative study on different ecosystems
(c) Statistical Analysis on Number of Tourists,
Foreign Exchange Earnings, Purpose of
Visit and Number of Internet Users
(d) Congregation of most possible online
based tourism services
(e) Proposed e-Tourism Task Scenario
(f) Proposed Mode of Payment
(g) Implementation of proposed model by an
e-Tourism site
6.2 Future Scopes
(a) SMS Based Payment and Confirmation
system
(b) Append the system with central Database
(c) Append with the permitted Online
Payment Gateway
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PROSPECTS OF E-T OURISM ECOSYSTEM IN BANGLADESH: SERVICES AND I NFRASTRUCTURE
(d) Potential e-Tourism marketing to expand
tourism
(e) Execute as a key aspect to attract foreign
tourists and earn more revenues
(f) All in one site (Booking, Ticketing, Travel,
Accommodation, Currency Exchange, Car
Rental etc)
(g) Online reservation system for public users
without local agent
(h) Establish e-tourism as an advanced
initiative of e-commerce
(i) Survey on industry feedbacks and benefits
[8] Xiao Ming Zhang, "A Semantic Grid Oriented to ETourism", CloudCom 2009, LNCS 5931, pp. 485496, 2009.
[9] Juan Jose Martínez Badillo, UNCTAD, Geneva,
"Standards Implementation in Developing
Countries: An E-Tourism Research Project", 2008.
[10] Scavarda, Annibal José, "The E-tourism And The
Virtual Enterprise", Proceedings of the Twelfth
Annual Conference of the Production and
Operations Management Society, 2001.
References
[11] Mavri, Maria and Angelis, Vasilis, "Forecasting the
Growth of e-Tourism Sector: The Case Study of
Mediterranean Countries", An International
Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism, 2009.
[1] Nargis Khan, "Proposed an optimized business
model G2B2C for e-Tourism", IJCIT: International
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2012.
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E-Tourism : The Role of ICT In Tourism Industry",
Innovations and Challenges, 2006.
[2] Ibrahim Mohamed and Leila Moradi, "A Model of
E-Tourism Satisfaction Factors for Foreign
Tourists", Australian Journal of Basic and Applied
Sciences, 2011.
[13] Riina Henriksson, "Semantic Web and E-Tourism",
Helsinki University, 2005.
[3] Feroz Ahmed & Md. Shah Azam, "Factors Affecting
the Selection of Tour Destination in Bangladesh: An
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Science and Education, 2010.
[4] Bansal, H.S., "Relating e-satisfaction to behavioral
outcomes: an emprical study", JSM: Journal of
Services Marketing, 2004.
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technology and tourism management: 20 years on
and 10 years after the Internet – The state of etourism research", Tourism Management, Buhalis
Publications, 2008
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Mohammad
Nazmul
Hasan received his M.Sc
and B.Sc in Computer
Science and Engineering
degree from Department
of Computer Science and
Engineering,
Daffodil
International
University, Dhaka and currently he is
pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in
Information and Communication Technology
degree from Institute of Information and
Communication Technology, Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology.
At present he is working with Government of
the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
DAFFODIL INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 10, ISSUE 1-2, JULY 2015
Appendix
Table 1 Comparison among existing tourism systems
Table 2 List of sites for survey with their business
Survey on the following sites
www.tripbd.com
www.travelonebd.com
www.tourismbd.com
www.annextravel.com
www.mytourismbd.com
www.tourtobangladesh.com
www.parjatan.gov.bd
www.parjatanbd.com
www.primetourism.net.bd
www.travelbd.com
www.tourismkeari.com
www.stourismbangladesh.com
www.guidetours.com
www.greenbangladeshtours.com
Table 3 Comparison among different ecosystems
Business
Tours and Travels
19
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PROSPECTS OF E-T OURISM ECOSYSTEM IN BANGLADESH: SERVICES AND I NFRASTRUCTURE
Table 8 Important and Implemented Factors of Proposed Model