Idea on E-Tourism“E-Guiding star” by Out of

Ideas

Bangladesh, a small country from South Asia is a beautiful place on the face of earth enriched with natural beauties( beaches, forest and wildlife, mountains), archeological sites, historical monuments, cultural diversity and many more.

Tourism as an industry helps by: Bringing in revenue Creating jobs for local Creating cross cultural environment to improve educational awareness

In order to be benefited by this industry, Bangladesh must introduce E-tourism.

E-tourism in not only about flashy websites.

It is the digitization of all the processes and value chains in the tourism, travel, hospitality and creating industries that enable organization to maximize their efficiency and effectiveness. (Buharis 2003)

Most importantly it minimizes the hassle of tourists.

Foreign visitors arrival: (2000-2009)

Year 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Total 199211 207,246 244,509 271,270 207,662 200,311 289,110 467,332 267,107

In April 2002, United states proved that the popularity of e-tourism is increasing for both leisure and business travelers. It showed that:

39 % of American leisure travelers think that the internet is faster for travel planning

32% of the surveyed travelers actually had made an online reservation.

90% of American internet users actually search information on e-Tourism websites.

66% of American users think that e-Tourism websites offer better service than travel agents.

Thus we propose to establish the Tourist resource and Facility center.Call center support for tourists.( 1 stop E- solution)

Internal network

and server

Call center

database

Services and function of TRF Center:

Tourists

Tourist resource and facility centers

Tourist will provide their

relevant information

which will be uploaded in the server database

Then they will be given a map(an application) of BD which will show the

tourist hot spots and navigation route to

reach there with transportation details

etc.

Tourists will be able to reserve their hotel rooms

and transports at the place of visit from any

TRFC and pay in advance which will confirm their room. Also can confirm

their train and bus tickets from our

network.

There will be a website of TRFC . It will be an open

network and tourists can have

all the services that is provided in TRFC. Payments

will be done through E-Wallet

such as money transfer via

mobile operators and Bkash.

Uniqueness and benefits of this service:It will set up an infrastructure for our permanent

tourism industry and help improve related infrastructures such as roads, highways, medical care, communication etc.

As we will provide these services trough our TRF centers and website this will be very time saving and will reduce the tourists unnecessary transition costs.

Through this service we are linking those foreign tourists who are comfortable paying by credit cards and online but the local hotels and many services around the tourist spots are not able to receive that.

Exposure of our importance towards tourism industry.

Through our service local people are also getting the privilege of advance reservation an confirmation of payments without having a credit card.

TRF Call Center: Which will be known as E- Solution, a dedicated helpline for tourists only

Other services provided by e-solution:

Data server of TRF center and call center will be linked together.

Information Reservation Payments

Call Center- e solution

• Hotels that are in our network.

• Public bus( BRTC), Train, Airlines and private transports to roam around the visiting place.

• Accommodation• Transportation• TRF center location• Embassy Locations• Hospitals, Banks,

Police stations etc.

• Credit cards• Through mobile

phone operators• Mobile banking

Implementation of the Plan:To introduce our proposed service the needed technological

support is already available in our country such as computers, software developers etc.

Setting up the infrastructure will not be costly as well as we won’t be setting up TRFC in divisional cities. We will incorporate with banks.

Then conduct surveys.

While conducting surveys, develop the necessary software, server and the internal network with the technical support of BASIS and BIID to operate the TRF centers and Call center support.

Include the banks and local hotels and services in our network.

Train the man-powers needed.

Thank you