Integrating Climate Change in Coastal and Maritime Tourism Development in Bangladesh

Author: Jannatul Ferdaus, Md Saiful Islam, Marzia Khandaker Momo, Md Kamrul Hassan
DOI: doi.org/10.70279/bmj-v8-i1-1038
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Coastal and marine environment is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Bangladesh. One of the main reasons for this popularity is that the world’s longest sea beach and the largest mangrove forest are located here. Coastal and maritime tourism (CMT), therefore, is a major domain of tourism sector of Bangladesh. However, CMT is projected as one of the most vulnerable tourism domains to climate change. In fact, climate change poses a huge risk to entire coastal areas of Bangladesh due to its geographical location and geo morphological characteristics. Therefore, integrating climate change in CMT development in Bangladesh is indispensable. This study identifies rich CMT resources of Bangladesh and explores how the global climate change is affecting them. Coastal erosion, inundation of land, loss of biodiversity, coral bleaching, and salinity intrusion are recognized as significant impacts of global climate change on CMT sector of Bangladesh. The study also suggests some adaptation strategies to address these impacts that would help the government, tourism industry and coastal communities in harnessing the coping strategies towards global climate change.