Financial institutions should come forward to promote tourism by offering deposit and lending services to tourists and tourism related businesses, analysts said yesterday.
"Banking services for the tourism sector will help create more jobs and increase the sector's contribution to the country's GDP,” said Mokhlesur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Tourism Foundation.
Under tourism banking, travel and tourist agencies can take loans to renovate hotels, restaurants and tourists spots, Rahman said, adding that financial institutions can lend to the tourism sector like they do for small and medium enterprises.
The travel and tourism sector's contribution to gross domestic product is expected to rise by 7.7 percent year-on-year to Tk 23,980 crore in 2014, according to a study of World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), a London-based research organisation.
The sector contributed Tk 22,260 crore or 2.1 percent to GDP last year.
Rahman was speaking at a seminar on necessity of tourism banking in Bangladesh, organised by the Tourism Foundation and the department of tourism and hospitality management of Dhaka University on the university campus.     
For the sake of the tourism sector, banks and non-bank financial institutions should come up with a diversified range of products and services, he said.
The travel and tourism products that are popular globally could be introduced in Bangladesh, according to a paper on tourism banking prepared by Rahman.
Such products include: deposit schemes, SME loan schemes, lending package for hotel purchase and renovation, lending package for travellers and agencies, and bank guarantee for tourism related business entities.
Tourism has economic impacts on sales, profits, jobs, tax revenue and income, he said. The direct effects are seen in lodging, restaurants, transportation, amusement, and retail trade.    
A strong tourism banking policy should be developed to create new avenues in tourism business, Rahman said.
Travel and tourism investment in Bangladesh was Tk 4,050 crore in 2013, or 1.5 percent of the county's total investment, according to the study of WTTC.
The investment should rise 3.4 percent in 2014, and 6.5 percent per year over the next ten years to Tk 7,850 crore, the research organisation said.
Nepal has started tourism banking in 2010 to help flourish their tourism industry and earn more foreign currencies, said Pushpa Raj Kandel, chairman of Tourism Development Bank of Nepal.
Both Nepal and Bangladesh are yet to generate enough employment opportunities through the tourism sector, said Kandel. The sector can play a vital role in job creation in Bangladesh, he added.
Travel and tourism generated 1,328,500 jobs directly in 2013 (1.8 percent of total employment) in Bangladesh and this is forecast to grow by 4 percent in 2014 to 1,381,500, according to the WTTC.
This includes employment by hotels, travel agents, airlines and other passenger transportation services (excluding commuter services). It also includes, for example, the activities of the restaurant and leisure industries directly supported by tourists.
Spending by local tourists is expected to grow by 7 percent year-on-year to Tk 39,670 crore in 2014, according to WTTC. The amount will rise 5.8 percent each year and finally stand at Tk 69,990 crore in 2024, it said.
Towfiq Ahmed Chowdhury, director general of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management, said the tourism sector cannot develop in absence of political stability.