Economies of rural tourism

Tourism is considered a composite industry that involves transportation, accommodation, shopping, entertainment and hospitality services for individuals and/or groups. There are several types of tourism such as coastal tourism, rural tourism etc. However, they all play a common role in the development of economies through a multidimensional framework. Recent statistics of United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) highlighted that tourism development in 2015 was responsible in supporting 284 million jobs worldwide. The tourism industry is labour intensive in nature offering a wide range of job opportunities both for skilled and unskilled workers. Such prerequisites of tourism development are ideally matched by demographic features of labour force structures of developing nations of which Bangladesh is a member. Thus, tourism can play a pivotal role in shaping the economy of Bangladesh and complement all its policies aimed at achieving the status of a middle income country by 2021.