Chapter 5

Tourism Facility Design Standards

and Development in Bangladesh

Md. Rakibul Hafiz Khan Rakib and Azizul Hassan

Abstract Tourist facility demands in Bangladesh are rising significantly and will
keep on rising in the coming years. Quality issue can be serious in tourist facilities
offered and the demand for government policy frameworks become essential.
Tourist facilities are aimed at catering the diverse and manifold facilities for the
tourists. In order to promote tourism in a country like Bangladesh, tourism facility
design standards and development need adequate attention. This is particularly
important as this relates tourist demands. The government stays as the key facilita-
tor for both the design standard and development. This research is based on data and
information generated from both the face-to-face interviews and the relevant litera-
ture studies. Findings outline that tourism facility has sensitivity as related to influ-
encing tourist decision to avail a specific product or service. Tourists in almost all
cases search for the best available tourist facility and the role of design standard and
development become important in this regard. This study outlines inadequate policy
support of the Bangladesh government in this particular area. The study then stresses
on strengthening the capacities of the Bangladesh government to involve both the
international and local agencies in ensuring the quality in standard design and
development.

Keywords Tourism · Tourist facility · Standard · Design · Development ·

Bangladesh

Introduction

Tourism is a constantly growing industry and becomes a popular leisure activity all
over the world. Tourism involves a combination of processes, activities, services
and related industries including transportation, accommodation, eating and drinking
facilities, shopping, entertainment and other hospitality services which provide

Md. R. H. K. Rakib (*)

Department of Marketing, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, Bangladesh
A. Hassan
Tourism Consultants Network, The Tourism Society, London, UK

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 71

M. S-.U-. Rahman, A. Hassan (eds.), Tourism Policy and Planning in Bangladesh,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7014-8_5
72 Md. R. H. K. Rakib and A. Hassan

travel experiences to individuals or groups travelling outside their normal residence

(Goeldner and Ritchie 2011). It generally includes short-term (not more than one
year) movement of people travelling away from their regular residence. Therefore,
tourism includes the movement of people- for less than 24 h as excursionist to at
least 24 h as tourists-for holiday, recreation, health, games, education, religious or
any other purposes (Cooper et al. 2008; Holloway and Taylor 2006). This movement
may be domestic or international. But in both the cases, tourism acts as a catalyst for
economic development through creating jobs, earning valuable foreign exchanges,
and stimulating both local and foreign investments (Andriotis 2001; Armstrong
et al. 1974; Bhuiyan 2015; Eadington and Smith 1992; Levy and Lerch 1991;
Liu 2003).
Nowadays, tourism is well thought-out as one of the building blocks of global
economy. This industry universally generates billions of dollars businesses every
year (Uniting Travel 2018). Following World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
(2019), travel and tourism sector contributed to 10.4% of worldwide gross domestic
product (GDP) amounting 8.8 trillion US dollars approximately and 10% of total
employments (1 out of every 10 jobs) through generating just about 319 million jobs
in 2018 (WTTC 2019). The significance of tourism in global economy continued to
rise in 2020. As one of the thrust sectors in Bangladesh, the contribution of this sec-
tor to GDP of Bangladesh was 10,567.4 million US dollars (about 4.3% of total
GDP in 2017) and to employment was 24,32,000 job opportunities (around 3.8% of
total employment in 2017) which is anticipated to rise in coming years (WTTC
2018). With the ever-increasing contribution of tourism sector to economic develop-
ment of Bangladesh, careful attention from both government and private stakehold-
ers for developing this sector becomes imperative.
Bangladesh, the darling child of nature, is situated in South Asia and consecrated
with natural scenic beauties, forests, attractive hills, hummocks, valleys, rivers, sea
beaches, islands, antiquarian sites, monuments, historical and religious places etc.
(Ahmed et al. 2010; Rahman et al. 2010). All these affluent natural and manmade
attractions, historical and cultural sites constitute major tourist destinations in
Bangladesh. To enjoy its immense beauties, every year large number of domestic
and international tourists visit Bangladesh (Haider 2015), indicating the high pos-
sibility and growing demand of this country’s tourism industry. According to World
Economic Forum (WEF) (2019), Bangladesh secured maximum ever progress in
the travel and tourism competitiveness index (WEF 2019) and therefore, success-
fully promoting Bangladesh as an attractive tourist destination to the world. Besides,
over the last 5 years, along with the increased domestic tourists, the number of
international tourists’ visiting Bangladesh also increased. Bangladesh Parjatan
Corporation (BPC) (2019) and Financial Express Report (FE Report) (2019), the
amount of foreign tourists roaming Bangladesh increasing continuously and stands
at around 0.14 million, 0.20 million, 0.26 million and 0.27 million in the year 2015,
2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively; while around 0.20 million foreign tourists have
already visited Bangladesh up to July, 2019 (BPC 2019; FE Report 2019).
To meet this growing tourist demand, there are no exceptions for providing better
services and quality facilities. With the increased demands for our country’s
5 Tourism Facility Design Standards and Development in Bangladesh 73

tourism, demands for tourist facilities are also increasing simultaneously in

Bangladesh. Quality issue can be serious in tourist facilities offered. Applying stan-
dards as benchmarks can be a way for ensuring quality (Cruz et al. 2018). We can
apply standards for our different tourism facilities like transportation facilities,
lodging or accommodation facilities, food service facilities, meetings and conven-
tions facilities, recreation and entertainment facilities etc. As these facilities are
intended to cater wide range of amenities for the tourists, design standards as well
as development for these facilities need immediate attention of the government.
Although as per Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (2020), many
countries separately (like Singapore) or jointly (like ASEAN countries) set stan-
dards for their tourism facilities (ASEAN 2020; Chye 2015), but unfortunately,
Bangladesh failed to develop standards for tourist facility design and development.
This study also found inadequate policy support of the Bangladesh government in
this particular area. Therefore, this study focuses on strengthening the capacities of
the Bangladesh government in ensuring the quality in standard design and develop-
ment through engaging both the international and local agencies along with the
private level stakeholders.

Tourism Facilities Offered to Tourists

As the facilities offered to tourists at different destinations significantly affect their

satisfaction and revisit intention; government, destination managers, and other tour-
ism service providers should be aware of providing standard facilities. For our dis-
cussion on tourism facilities, we will consider five types of tourism facilities namely
transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, conference and events, and rec-
reation and entertainment facilities.

Transportation Facilities

Transportation as the first and foremost tourism facility affects the movement of
tourists in between their place of origin to their destination (Goeldner and Ritchie
2011). Transportation and tourism not only depends on each other but also each acts
as the cause of other, hence their relationship is symbiotic (Page and Ge 2009).
Transportation facilities act as a key driver of every tourism industry and signifi-
cantly affect the growth of tourism industry (Rodrigue 2020). A wide range of trans-
portation modes like air, road, rail or water are available to tourists to access their
desired destinations and roam around it. Usually, air transportation is the foremost
mode of international and mid to long distance tourism (Rodrigue 2020) whereas
road transport (i.e. personal automobile) is the main means of domestic and short
trip tourism (Goeldner and Ritchie 2011). However, water and rail ways also plays
important role in providing transportation facilities to tourists.
74 Md. R. H. K. Rakib and A. Hassan

Accommodation Facilities

Accommodation facilities are one of the earliest forms of commercial business

(Goeldner and Ritchie 2011) which most of the tourists booked even before plan-
ning a tour to a sought after destination. Although accommodation or lodging ser-
vices normally provide overnight stay facilities, it can also cover day stay facilities
for rest and revive of tourists (Cooper et al. 2008). Development of tourism industry
largely depends on the quality and quantity of accommodation facilities available to
tourists (Saxena 2008). Quality of the accommodation facilities affects tourist satis-
faction, hence, influence their overnights stay, revisit or recommendation decision
(Bigné et al. 2000; Cruz et al. 2018; Scheyvens and Russell 2012). Today’s tourists
favor hotels, motels, home stays, suites, resorts, or private room sharing properties
that are environment friendly and conserves energy.

Food Service Facilities

Like accommodation facilities, food service facilities have significant impact on the
development of any country’s tourism industry. The food service facilities, popu-
larly known as the food and beverage facilities, provide meals, snacks, beverages
and drinks to tourists for their immediate consumption. Food, meals and other food
related facilities can affect a tourist’s destination choice decision (Andersson et al.
2017). Food service facilities includes amenities provided at a wide range of casual
restaurants, family restaurants, travel food service institutions, bars, food trucks,
street food service providers, local restaurants, take away restaurants, coffee shops
or cafeterias. Nowadays, responsible tourists usually choose foods that are tradi-
tional and uphold the community values. Besides, conservation practices are the
main consideration for four out of ten tourists in choosing their restaurants (Goeldner
and Ritchie 2011).

 onference, Convention, Meeting, Exhibition

C
and Relevant Facilities

As tourism itself a profitable business for destination countries, ignoring tourism

facilities for business tourist could be destructive. Therefore, besides individual
tourists, special types of facilities for business tourists should also be offered at
large traffic generating destinations. Appropriate arrangement and supporting facili-
ties for conference, convention, meeting, exhibition, special event, seminar or trade
show should also be provided to small and large business groups. These facilities
(i.e. festivals, fairs, events etc.) are amid the fastest growing components of global
tourism and act as a potent device to attract off-season tourists (Goeldner and
5 Tourism Facility Design Standards and Development in Bangladesh 75

Ritchie 2011). Although the demand for these types of tourism or tourist facilities
are initially generated from the domestic tourist, however, these facilities, if offered
successfully, can open opportunities to attract international tourists (Rogerson 2005).

Recreation and Entertainment Facilities

Since the number of young, thrill-seeking tourists are increasing day by day (Hence
2018), the demand for recreation and entertainment facilities at tourist destinations
are also increasing. Recreation and entertainment are pleasurable, socially allowed
activities that revitalize the tourist during their leisure. During travel, every tourist
seeks escape from usual life and therefore, demand for recreation and entertainment
facilities like golfing, fishing, skiing, bird watching, horse riding, hiking, wilds trek-
king, parasailing, watching live performance at theater, music concerts, and circuses
etc. are rising rapidly (Goeldner and Ritchie 2011). However, to ensure profitable
and sustainable tourism business, providing such facilities to tourists should value
social, behavioural and environmental norms (Lawson and Manning 2002; Manning
et al. 1996; Partalidou and Iakovidou 2008; Vaske et al. 1993).

Tourism Facility Design Standards: Global Perspectives

Transportation, accommodation, food service, events and exhibitions, and recre-

ation and entertainment facilities are primary components of successful operation of
every tourism destination irrespective of their size and location. Demand for such
facilities is growing all over the world. The quality of these facilities can be a deter-
minant in attracting tourists from national and international arena and retaining
competitiveness of the destination (Warnken 2002). Therefore, maintaining quality
of various tourist facilities becomes imperative that calls for government policy
framework for planning and managing the destination. Applying minimum stan-
dards as benchmark can be a viable way to attain quality in tourist facilities (Cruz
et al. 2018). Although some individual country specific (i.e. Macedonia, Singapore)
or region specific (i.e. ASEAN, IMT-GT: Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth
Triangle) standards, laws, regulations or policy frameworks for tourist facility
design and development were found; but surprisingly, no universal standards for
tourism facilities were found in the existing inventory of tourism research. For our
discussion on tourism facility standards, we therefore rely largely on the tourism
standards established by ASEAN, USA, Singapore, Macedonia, Indonesia, Thailand
and Malaysia.
While providing transportation facilities, tourist safety and environmental pres-
ervation standard should be ensured first. For road, rail or water transport, drivers
must have driving license, limited working hours, and strictly follow water/rail/
highway codes and speed limits. Seat belt facilities for tourists must be present in
76 Md. R. H. K. Rakib and A. Hassan

every transport. Besides international and regional air connectivity, local air con-
nectivity to major destinations must also be established for comfortable movement
of tourists. Tourist’s need for travel and baggage carrying between airport and other
transport terminals, lodgings, restaurants, and tourist spots must be fulfilled.
Moreover, use of leaded and fossil fuel must be reduced to restrict carbon emissions
(Rodrigue 2020). Accommodation facilities should be provided to tourists in a way
that is environment friendly, conserves energy, and ensures community lifestyle.
Accommodations facilities must offer green products, apply 3R-reduce, reuse and
recycle- concept in waste management, ensure water and energy efficient technolo-
gies, maintain indoor and outdoor air quality, temperature and noise control tech-
nologies inside the hotel or home stay etc. (ASEAN 2020; Cruz et al. 2018;
Menegaki and Agiomirgianakis 2019). Multiple food service providers like hotels,
restaurants, bars or cafes provide food and drink to tourists for immediate consump-
tion or takeaway that must be prepared and stored by following the principles of
hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP). Besides, buildings, rooms and
equipments used for food preparation and preservation should be clean, hygienic,
dirt and mould free. Furthermore, food handling staffs must maintain personal
hygiene (Wood 2019). Hotels, restaurants or food serving premises must have ade-
quate ventilation scheme to control fumes, smoke, odor, steam and vapors. However,
in all instances, consumption of region specific, seasonal and locally produced
foods must be encouraged (ASEAN 2020; Menegaki and Agiomirgianakis 2019).
The terms convention, conference, exhibition and meeting are almost similar and
can be used interchangeably (Lee and Park 2002; Rockett and Smillie 1994). To be
successful in attracting domestic and international tourist market, these facilities
must offer modern amenities, easy accessibility, a wide range of accommodation
close to those facilities, attractive surroundings and shops (Law 1987). Besides,
these facilities must be supported with purpose built venues, ground transportation
services for the delegates, and skilled manpower to run domestic and international
events (Sangpikul and Kim 2009). Recreation and entertainment facilities usually
revitalize the tourists and standard setting for such facilities is mainly the responsi-
bility of the government or public sector (Cooper et al. 2008; McConnell 1985).
Public sector authorities such as local or regional government, tourists’ boards etc.
deals with designing optimal mix for recreation and entertainment facilities. For
some of these facilities like skiing, horse riding, hiking, wilds trekking, parasailing
etc., destination service providers must arrange necessary safety and security pre-
cautions. Besides, colorful and community based evening life should be extended to
tourists (Roy 2016). However, for all types of recreational and entertainment facili-
ties in which the tourist participates, collective beliefs of community, values, norms,
and cultural patterns usually acts as standards that should be honored by both the
tourists and destination service providers.
5 Tourism Facility Design Standards and Development in Bangladesh 77

Tourism Facility Design Standards in Bangladesh

Despite having numerous attractions, Bangladesh tourism industry failed to flourish

as expected. Although the number of tourists visiting different destinations of
Bangladesh are increasing every year, but this figure is quite dissatisfactory com-
pared to the top most destination countries, even to the neighbouring countries (Roy
2016; WTTC 2019). Besides lack of promotion, apathy of government and other
policy planners, and poor destination management; poor quality facilities offered to
tourists is one of the prime reasons behind this backwardness. Quality tourism facil-
ity significantly influences tourist decision to avail a specific tourism product or
service (Bigné et al. 2000). In most of the cases, tourists normally search for the best
available tourist facility and the role of design standard and development become
important in this regard.
Bangladesh made ever best progress and ranked 120th among 140 countries in
the tourism competitiveness index in terms of available tourist-friendly facilities for
instance air transport, accommodation, safety and security, culture and constant
travel opportunities for tourists (WEF 2019). But, Bangladesh failed to establish
own standards, whether formal or informal, for its different facilities offered to tour-
ists. Surprisingly, the only instrument it has corresponding to tourism facility design
and development is its national tourism policy-2010. While searching over the inter-
net for any documents related to tourist facility design standards and development
in Bangladesh, the authors did not find any such documents developed by the cor-
responding NTO or the government as the key facilitator for this specific task.
Besides, the authors also emailed 15 government officials, agencies and private des-
tination managers regarding their tourist facility design standards; regretfully none
of them responded yet. This reflects inadequate policy support of the Bangladesh
government as well as apathy of the private level destination managers in this par-
ticular area.
However, some work plans, strategies or policies related to tourism facilities are
found on different state owned websites (i.e. https://mocat.gov.bd/; http://www.par-
jatan.gov.bd/; http://www.tourismboard.gov.bd/). With a view to providing contem-
porary and standard tourism facilities to tourists, Bangladesh government has
planned to strengthen its different runways and airports through better safety and
security measures, expansion of runways, and constructions of new airports.
Construction projects for new hotels, motels, youth inns in Rangamati, Kuakata,
and Dinajpur; upgradation, reform and development of different existing hotels and
motels in Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, and Sylhet; and introduction of many other
tourists facilities (i.e. formation of tourist police for the safety of tourists) adjacent
to many tourist spots are going on. Along with Chinese, Thai, Arabian, Spanish and
Western menus, our traditional organic and safe foods are now made available in
almost all state owned hotels and motels and private luxurious hotels and restau-
rants. Drinking facilities for foreign tourists are also made available in selected
hotels, motels, and restaurants. Conventions, conference, trade fair, and exhibitions
facilities are also ensured for domestic and foreign delegates in different
78 Md. R. H. K. Rakib and A. Hassan

destinations (i.e. Dhaka, Chattogram, and Cox’s Bazar). Besides, national hotel and
tourism training institute (NHTI) is working hard to produce professional and
skilled manpower to handle such events. Moreover, to provide the tourist mind
refreshing recreation and entertainment, government has introduced and encour-
aged community based folk cultural programs, local foods, primal handicraft and
cottage industries, and eco-guide training for safety on concerned destinations.

Evaluation of Tourism Facility Design in Bangladesh

As the authors do not find sufficient documents related to tourism facility design
standards and development in Bangladesh over the internet, therefore personal face
to face interview with destination policy planners and managers are arranged. The
authors initially invited fifteen (15) top officials from different government tourism
related agencies and private tourism service providers over telephone calls and
email for depth interview. But unfortunately, all of them neither show interest nor
responded. Therefore, the authors then choose 10 mid-level government tourism
officials, destination managers and international tourists for conducting semi-­
structured interview. Besides, opinion of tourists regarding the standard of tourism
facilities offered in Bangladesh are also collected from 50 domestic and foreign
tourists selected randomly from Dhaka, Cox’s Bazar, and Saint Martin’s Island.
About the tourism facility design standard and development in different destina-
tions in Bangladesh, some of the interviewee stated that:
“We are working vigorously to develop the facilities of our different tourist destinations.
Although we have no formal standards for developing different facilities in our destina-
tions, but we have already adopted a national tourism policy which acts as guidelines for
developing our tourism industry, as well as its different facilities. Besides, based on our
experiences gathered from many top-tier destination countries, we are trying to improve our
transportation, accommodation, catering, recreation and other facilities at different tourist
spots”.(Interviewee # 7)

“…certainly, our tourism industry has huge potentials. But, work process of our govern-
ment is very slow. Government has failed to set any standard or provision for design and
development of different tourist facilities. Therefore, we have to set standards for different
tourist facilities based on our personal experiences and explanation of quality. Rather, gov-
ernment is engaging themselves with establishing new agencies. Moreover, they don’t have
incentives/motivational programs for well performing service providers at different destina-
tions”. (Interviewee # 4)

“I have travelled many tourist spots in Bangladesh and experienced poor transportation,
accommodation, entertainment and recreational facilities, and tourist management. Besides,
due to absence of government monitoring, many service providers charge unnecessary and
excessive service charges. Evening life and drinking facilities are completely absent here.
Besides, professionalism in providing services and managing destinations are also miss-
ing”. (Interviewee # 9)
5 Tourism Facility Design Standards and Development in Bangladesh 79

However, the findings on the present state of tourist facility design and development
in Bangladesh collected through structured questionnaires from 50 tourists are sum-
marized below Table 5.1.
The study results shows that, the standard of transportation facilities is perceived
as bad by most of the tourists (58%) whereas 30% of them consider it as very bad.
While evaluating the standard of accommodation facilities in Bangladesh, 48% of
the tourists treat it as bad and 24% of them grade it as average. Besides, majority of
the tourists’ evaluate the standard of our convention, conference, meeting, exhibi-
tion, and event facilities as either very bad (38%) or bad (32%). Moreover, a major
portion of the tourists (38%) also evaluate our recreation and entertainment

Table 5.1 Tourists’ evaluation on standard of tourism facilities in Bangladesh

Valid
Statement on Tourism Facilities Options Frequency Percent Percent
Tourists’ evaluation on Standard of transportation Very bad 15 30.0 30.0
Facilities in Bangladesh Bad 29 58.0 58.0
Average 4 8.0 8.0
Good 1 2.0 2.0
Excellent 1 2.0 2.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
Tourists’ evaluation on Standard of accommodation Very bad 2 4.0 4.0
Facilities in Bangladesh Bad 24 48.0 48.0
Average 12 24.0 24.0
Good 11 22.0 22.0
Excellent 1 2.0 2.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
Tourists’ evaluation on Standard of food service Very bad 5 10.0 10.0
Facilities in Bangladesh Bad 4 8.0 8.0
Average 17 34.0 34.0
Good 14 28.0 28.0
Excellent 10 20.0 20.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
Tourists’ evaluation on Standard of convention, Very bad 19 38.0 38.0
conference, meeting, exhibition, event etc. Facilities Bad 16 32.0 32.0
in Bangladesh Average 11 22.0 22.0
Good 3 6.0 6.0
Excellent 1 2.0 2.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
Tourists’ evaluation on Standard of recreation and Very bad 6 12.0 12.0
entertainment Facilities in Bangladesh Bad 19 38.0 38.0
Average 10 20.0 20.0
Good 12 24.0 24.0
Excellent 3 6.0 6.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
Source: Field Survey (2020)
80 Md. R. H. K. Rakib and A. Hassan

facilities as bad. However, 34% of the tourists evaluate the standard of our food
service facilities as average, while 24% of them treated it as good. The findings of
this study on transportation and accommodation facilities agree with the findings of
Bhuiyan (2015), although for food service facilities, it differs.

Recommendations and Conclusions

Bangladesh, having amazing natural, god-gifted and manmade attractions, can be a

prime destination for both the domestic and foreign tourists. Despite having huge
potential, low tourists penetration to different destinations still remains as a great
challenge for Bangladesh tourism industry (Ahmed et al. 2010; Haider 2015;
Rahman et al. 2010). Offering quality facilities to tourists can be a solution to this
great challenge (Warnken 2002). As the demand for quality tourist facilities in
Bangladesh are raising significantly, government policy framework for setting stan-
dard on every tourism facilities design and development therefore become essential
right at this moment. But, establishing standard for different tourist facilities is not
an easy task for a country like Bangladesh where proper coordination among the
tourism policy planners, private level service providers and other stakeholders is
almost absent. Besides, Bangladesh has its National Tourism Policy-2010 as only
document to start the development of standards for facility design. Therefore, taking
help from the tourism standards of leading countries and regions like ASEAN,
USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India etc. can help greatly in this regard.
However, for developing tourism facility standards, government and other policy
planners should consider a wide range of facility related issues in mind. Tourists
always want comfortable journeys to maximum tourist spots at minimum possible
time and cost. Therefore, hassle free better communication and transportation facili-
ties for the tourists should be ensured in order to facilitate improved access through
superior transport mechanism like high speed, secured, low-carbon, environment
friendly road and railway connectivity, introduction of short distance air connectiv-
ity, and comfortable waterbus or cruise ship connectivity. Besides, more classy
accommodation and lodging facilities like hotels, motels, resorts and home stays
should be developed near the tourist attractions equipped with possible modern
amenities i.e. spacious rooms, safe and traditional food and water, clean washroom,
parking, and duty free shopping facilities. Better recreation and entertainment facil-
ities like live music, theme parks, night clubs, bars, casinos, kayaking, surfing, fish-
ing, golf courses should also be developed adjacent to different tourist destinations.
Capacities for arranging conventions, meetings, conferences, short term events,
sports competitions, trade or traditional fairs, festivals, exhibitions, folk or cultural
evening etc. in different tourists spots should also be strengthened. A comprehen-
sive policy indicating the different tourist spots and a clear direction about where,
when and how to start and where, when and how to end the tour should be made
available to different prime destinations for providing quality travel experience to
tourist. Besides, government should make proper plan to obtain support and active
5 Tourism Facility Design Standards and Development in Bangladesh 81

participation of the international tourism agencies, private level destination manag-

ers and service providers, and community based stakeholders before setting any
standard for different tourism facilities in Bangladesh. And, lastly, the entire tour-
ism related facility standard should be set by considering the standards of leading
countries and perceptions of tourists, rather than the personal experiences and qual-
ity perceptions of the policy planners.

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Md. Rakibul Hafiz Khan Rakib is a Lecturer at Department of Marketing, Begum Rokeya
University, Rangpur, Bangladesh. Rakib completed MBA and BBA in Marketing from University
of Rajshahi, Bangladesh and obtained 1st position in both the examinations. He has almost
four years of teaching experience at the University level. His areas of interest for teaching and
research include Marketing, Consumer Behaviour, Entrepreneurship Development, Tourism and
Hospitality Marketing, and Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM). His three articles and two
book chapters are published in peer reviewed international and national journals/book. His one
refereed conference proceedings and five articles are accepted in different journals for publication.
He has expertise in SPSS, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), PLS-SEM, and AMOS. Currently
he is trying to develop a framework for sustainable tourism development in Bangladesh.

Azizul Hassan is a member of the Tourism Consultants Network of the UK Tourism Society.
Hassan holds PhD from the United Kingdom. Hassan’s areas of research interest are: technology-
supported marketing for tourism and hospitality, immersive technology application in the tourism
and hospitality industry, technology influenced marketing suggestions for sustainable tourism and
hospitality industry in developing countries. Hassan authored over 100 articles and book chapters
in leading tourism outlets. He is also part of the editorial team of 15 book projects from Routledge,
Springer, CAB International and Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Hassan is a regular reviewer
of Tourism Management, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Tourism Analysis, the
International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Ecotourism, Journal of Business
Research, eReview of Tourism Research (eRTR), International Interdisciplinary Business-­
Economics Advancement Journal, Heliyon and International Journal of Tourism Cities.