A Meaningful Tourism Economy – An opportunity for Bangladesh to build a strong tourism industry without repeating the mistakes of other destinations.
Workshop at Daffodil International University, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management
Kathmandu, July 12th, 2026
The world is changing, and tourism is changing with it. Climate change, AI and the new demands and behaviour of travellers are destroying many old business models, but also provide opportunities for new offers and new destinations. Currently, Bangladesh has almost no international tourism arrivals, in terms of visitors per capita it is ranking at one of the lowest positions of all countries.
This challenge can be turned into an opportunity if both the public and the private sector learn from the many mistakes other destinations made, resulting in destruction of nature and culture, overtourism and the leakage of most of the income from tourism out of the country.
The Daffodil International University, one of the biggest universities in Bangladesh, invited Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt FRGS FRAS, an internationally renowned tourism experts from Germany, now living in Nepal, to offer a workshop “Meaningful Tourism – Holistic Sustainability” on July 14th to introduce the Meaningful Tourism paradigm as a powerful tool to achieve a tourism and hospitality development which brings objective benefits and subjective satisfaction to all stakeholders involved.
Prof. Dr. Arlt is the founder and Executive Director of the MTC Meaningful Tourism Centre based in London and Kathmandu. MTC and the Daffodil International University, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, have agreed to start the Meaningful Tourism Innovation Lab Bangladesh, which will provide help to the public and private sector to turn the insight of the Meaningful Tourism approach into practical strategy and action for Bangladesh.
The PATA Pacific Asia Travel Association names as the vision for the Asia-Pacific region the establishment of A Meaningful Tourism Economy. Meaningful Tourism is the new paradigm for the post-pandemic development of global tourism first coined by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt in 2021. It enhances in a holistic way the predominantly supply-side orientated Sustainable Tourism approach and the focus on restricting the behaviour of visitors in the Responsible Tourism approach towards a concept which covers both demand and supply side and concentrates on the positive effects for all stakeholders involved, who are not just confronted with their sins and with necessary restrictions, but receiving in return for the development of Meaningful Tourism positive results.
Using Quality and Satisfaction of all stakeholders as the basic Key Performance Indicators, the interests of the guests/visitors, host communities, staff, companies and organisations, governments and the environment are taken into account, allowing the Forward Proofing of destinations and companies in their sustainable and profitable development as well as offering career paths for employees and increased benefits for the host communities.
Meaningful Tourism takes into account the new demands and behaviour of domestic and international tourists in the second decade of the 21st century, moving from sightseeing to transformative experiences and from group travel to customised and even personalised trips.
The negative results of climate change are certain to increase in severity in the coming decades. Whatever action is taken from now on is necessary to try to slow down and mitigate the process, however, the world has reached tourism peak and needs a new paradigm on how to develop, measure and react to extreme weather events, rising sea levels and temperatures combined with protests by local communities, shortages of staff willing to work in the industry and decreases in biodiversity.
Meaningful Tourism is offering such a paradigm as a development of the concepts of sustainable and responsible tourism, based on a holistic approach and positive psychology and meant to provide a practical tool to implement measurable benefits and satisfaction of all stakeholders through alignment of interests instead of compromises. The new situation mankind is facing, embracing adaptation and change not only helps the planet but is necessary to safe your destination or company from losing tourism business or closure.
The Meaningful Tourism paradigm is not yet another certification or a purely academic exercise. It is meant to provide a practical tool for all stakeholders involved to get their fair share of the increases in quality, benefits and satisfaction which can be the result of tourism if it is organised in a way which simply does not accept that any of the stakeholder groups is not included in the positive results or even suffers negative results from tourism developments.
Despite its rich culture, diverse landscapes, and vibrant biodiversity, Bangladesh’s potential as a tourist destination remains underutilised, with only 650,000 foreign visitors spending just 440 million USD on tourism in 2025. Bangladesh is home to more than 2% of mankind, but only attracted only 0.05% of all international travellers. However, half of mankind is living within four hours flying distance for Bangladesh. Concentrating on quality instead of quantity and on providing customised services especially for the regional source markets, Bangladesh has a great opportunity to dramatically increase its importance as a global tourism destination for the second quarter of the 21st century.
Contact for more information: info@meaningfultourismcentre.org