Assignment of Fin-1207: Business Mathematics-II

Assignment on “A

rcheolog

ical Tou

rism D

evelopm

ent in Ban

gladesh: S

tar Mosque”

Md. Omar Faruque

Course Instructor/ Lecturer,

Department of Finance,

Jagannath University, Dhaka

.]

Sultan Ahmed Khan

Representative of the group

Epimetheus

BBA 3rd Batch

Department of Finance,

Jagannath University, Dhaka.

Submitted by

Submitted to

Group Name: Epimetheus

Group No:

Name of the members of the group:

Serial No: Name of the members of the group Roll Number

01 Sultan Ahmed Khan 091597

02 Md. Mynul Islam 091633

03 Sharjil Ahmed 091623

04 Anik Mahmud 091636

05 Nusret Jahan Nupur 091519

06 Mamunur Rashid 07882747

07 Md. Mofazzal Hossen 091615

08 Mahmuda Akter Tonny 091571

09 Saheen Alam 091603

10 Nipun Roy 091612

Group Representative: Sultan Ahmed Khan.

Group Coordinator : Md. Mynul Islam.

Contact : epimetheus.jnu@gmail.com

May 02, 2011

The Course Instructor,

Md. Omar Faruque,

Lecturer,

Department of Finance,

Jagannath University, Dhaka.

Sub: Thanks giving letter to the respective faculty member.

Sir,

We are the student of Department of Finance (3rd batch) of Jagannath University, Dhaka & also from the group named “Epimetheus”. We are very much enthusiastic about our presentation. We are really happy to have such a presentation of challenging and interesting like this presentation & also thanks to you for making us worthy for corporate. Our presentation topic is “Tourism Development in Bangladesh: Star Mosque”. We have learned many things from this topic which will help us in future to conduct as an analyst of economics. There were some obstacles we have faced at the time of collecting data about our topic. But we have overcome all the obstacles by the endeavor effort by each member of our group and tried our best to give an overview of our topic.

We the group “Epimetheus” tried our best to make this presentation attractive, impeccable, interesting, informative and enjoyable by the help of electronic and print media in association with our honorable teacher, mentor, counselor, instructor and advocate Md. Omar Faruque. We are really grateful to him. We had limitations at the time preparing presentation. So mistakes may occur in our demonstration of our presentation. We hope that, you will exempt our mistakes.

Thanking in anticipation,

Yours Fidel,

Sultan Ahmed Khan

Group Representative,

Group-“Epimetheus”

BBA 3rd Batch

Department of Finance

Jagannath University,Dhaka.

First of all we would like to thank the Almighty for giving us the strength, and the aptitude to complete this report within due time. We are deeply indebted to our course teacher, mentor, and counselor, Md. Omar Faruque for assigning us such an interesting topic named “ Tourism Development in Bangladesh: Star Mosque” . We also express the depth of my appreciation to our honorable course teacher for his suggestion and guidelines, which helped us in completing this report.

NAME Page no

Executive Summary

Chapter- 01

Introduction

Objectives of The Study 03

Methodology of the Study 03

Abstract 04

Introduction 04

Archaeological Tourism 05

Archaeological Tourists and Archaeological Tourism

06

Chapter- 02

Body of the Paper

Travel industry and Archaeological Tourism

06

Archaeological Truism in Bangladesh 07

Tara Mashjid/Star Mosque 08

History 09

Structure and its component 10

Adjacent Building & Tomb 13

Conduction & Conductors 14

Finance & Persons Contacted 14

Recommendation 15

Problem of Arco Logical Tourism in Bangladesh

17

Objective of the Study

The core objective of this paper was to illustrate the concept of archaeological tourism in Bangladesh. The report has been written keeping in mind the following objectives:

To concentrate on the key elements of archaeological tourism.

To discover the major archaeological tourists spots in Bangladesh.

To identify the problems regarding archaeological tourism in Bangladesh. And

Finally to provide recommendation to solve them.

Methodology of the Study

For making the paper, the necessary information was mainly collected from secondary sources. The secondary data were collected from the annual reports of Bangladesh Porjoton Corporation (BPC), visiting web sites, reviewing different articles, journals and publications. The portion regarding The Star Mosque has been prepared with the help of primary data as the secondary data are not sufficient. These primary data were collected through free interview method, group discussion with the authority of the Star Mosque and managing directors and other executives of BPC.

Abstract

Archaeology is a form of tourism in which visitors gather archaeology based experience. It is a part of tourism where people visit the archaeological places. In archaeological tourism, people of different places come to visit the archaeological places to acquire practical knowledge about the archaeological sites. In ancient time many land lords, saints and other rich people established respective buildings to easy their respective tasks (i.e. living, prayers and worship).Most of them have become archaeologically important and are contributing a few to the economy of our country .This paper analyzed the concept of archaeological tourism and attempted to point out the problems and prospects of the Star Mosque as a representative of all archaeological spots.

Introduction

Archaeological tourism is not a new phenomenon though the concept has recently gained importance and attention. Now a day’s archaeological tourism is drawing remarkable attention of the tourists. In the growing interest neoconservative system, people have realized that we are forgetting our glorious history. But we should not let it be continued. So it is time to grasp the archaeological spots for the development of our economy. The Taj Mahal of India has become a great source of economy. We have a lot of such spots. But for the lack of government interest as well as our individual interest we can't utilize them. About three million people perform Hajj each year which is a great money source of Saudi Arabia. We can develop our archaeological spots and make familiar them to the people of home and abroad. It has opened up a new horizon of prosperity for the developing countries. Bangladesh being a developing country with many beautiful archaeological spots and picturesque land scope is an ideal region to explore the stability of archaeological tourism. The high rated archaeological potentiality includes- The Shat Gambuj Mosque, The shrine of Hazrat Shah Jalal, National Mosque, Bayzid Bostami, Kantjii Temple, Paharpur Buddhist Monastery, Puthia Temple, Moynamoti, Mohasthanghar, Nowab Masjid, Bishwa Isteema, Choto Katra, Baro Katra, etc. This paper primarily seeks to analyze the concept of archaeological tourism. Attempted should have also been made to identify the major archaeological tourist’s spots with this special attraction as well as to find out the existing roles of public and private sectors. The study further identifies some problems and constraints of archaeological tourism and directs probable ways to solve them.

Archaeological Tourism

The archaeological sites

These are the most important element of this tourism. The archaeological sites of our country are very much ancient. Every site has a great historical background. These elements are spread over the country.

Tourists

Tourists are the main customers for tourism industry. So it is a vital for this tourism too.

History

If the site has no historic background then it can't be archaeologically important. So history related to the specific site is an important element if a tourist’s site has to become archaeological tourist’s spots.

Government

Government has a vital role in archaeological tourism. If the government provides necessary support to tourists, they will be encouraged to visit the places.

People

Local people of the site have a great influence on the tourists. If they are amiable then tourists will feel comfort. Hence the industry will be profitable for our country.

Archaeological Tourists and Archaeological Tourism

Basically the tourism in which people visit the archaeological sites being inspired by the history to have a practical knowledge is called archaeological tourism. Conceptually archaeological tourism has emerged from very beginning of history whenever people had realized the relative importance of historical place. Bangladesh is endowed with various tourists’ attractions which include archaeological sites, mosques, temples, monuments, modern resorts and a range of tour including river cruises and boating. Archaeological tourists have different features as they

Are the people who are informal, more inquisitive, more adventures then the conventional tourists who are interested in the usual sightseeing and used to luxurious hotels and resorts? They are not merely onlookers, they are doers. They are found to the consciousness about mutual responsibility and sincere respect for all forms of lives.

Travel Industry and Archaeological Tourism

Now people have also started to use their vacation in search for this new kind of inner peace. For this travel is must. Archaeological tourism is now one of the fastest growing segments in the travel industry worldwide, although it is one of the oldest forms of tourism, with people traveling to Macca, Taj Mahal, and Pyramid etc.

Archaeological Tourism in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a poor country. But it has a glorious past and can have a glorious future too if steps are taken in the right direction. One of such directions is the development of tourism. The archaeological tourism in Bangladesh has surpassed all expectations despite the unfavorable and adverse situation to the world travel and tourism industry. Most of the tourists visiting the archaeological sites are local. Bangladesh may not possess the impressive monuments and architectural treasures like the Pyramid or the Taj Mahal, but it does have something substantially different to offer in its scenic beauty and cultural heritage. Of course some archaeological sites representing Buddhist period are there in the country. Added to these sites are numerous historical representing Hindu, Muslims and British periods scattered all over the country. However most of these are still unexplored and unknown. The researcher studied major archaeological sites, shrine, mosque and temples in Bangladesh. A few of main archaeological sites and monuments are mentioned here.

Tara Mashjid/Star Mosque

The Star Mosque, situated at Puran Dhaka (old Dhaka), is one of the most important and significant archaeological tourists spot in Bangladesh. As we have visited the Star Mosque recently we have collected the information as mentioned below.

Address:

8/3, Armanitola,

Abul Khairal Road,

Dhaka- 1100

History

About 300 years ago a great saint, Mirza Gulam Peer who was a relative of Ser-E-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Haque, established the Mosque in order spread Islam in that region. On that time its colour was pink. But the new decoration, exist now, had taken place about 70 years ago by Alizaan Bepary of Mahottoly, Dhaka. He tried to beautify the Mosque.

Structure and its component

The local area of the land is about 15 khathas. But the main building is situated on the area which is 80 feet long 38 feet wide and 32 feet from the bottom to the apex of the miner.

There are 5 doors, all in the back side, which are 7 feet high and 3 feet wide. The number of windows is 2. One is at the left and anther one is at right.

During the first building there were 3 domes, but now the number is 5. One of them is largest and rests are of same size. There are 16 miners on the roof. Also there is a fascinating spout on it the Mosques yard.

The inner-lower half is covered with very beautiful tiles which have been brought from the china. But the upper side, both inner and outer, is covered with beautifully structured broken pieces of porcelain and various glass-bottle of different colors.

With this broken glass and ceramics the flowers, the moons and the stars have been drawn which is a symbol of glorious architect.

Adjacent Building

Armonitola High School

Madrasha

Local Buildings

Tomb

At the left hand of the mosque there are 8 shrines. Few of them are mentioned below.

Sheikh Sah

Meer Sujat Ali

Morhum Abdur Rahman

Conduction & Conductors

The Mosque is managed by a local Mosque committee which is formed by the agreement of the people. This managing team appoints the Imam, Muazzin, Caretakers. The employers with salary are mentioned below:

Sl. No.

Post Name Age Salary (Per month)

1. Imam Mufti Abdur Rashid 58 8000

2. Muazzin Md. Tofazzal Hossain 24 4000

3. Caretakers (7 person)

Md. Tawlat Hossain (One of them)

24 2000

Finance

Actually the Mosque is financed locally. It gets seldom sponsor and government finance. The govt. provides only 1 lakh taka per year which is not sufficient to be conducted.

Persons Contacted

We have contacted with the following person to collect the data.

Sl. No. Name Age (app)

1. Mufti Abdur Rashid 58

2. Md. Tawlat Hossain 24

3. Md. Sah Alam 40

Recommendation

Though there are a lot of unfavorable and adverse situation to the world travel and tourism industry. We can see a dim light of hope. But this dim light can be bright if we identify and remove the present problems in most of the archaeological sites in Bangladesh. The following recommendation may be worth consideration by concerned authorities for development of our archaeology tourism:

Advertising

The involved organization (BPC) should think about the advertising of the archaeological tourism. It should appoint marketing an expert in this regard. It should observe the neighbor country’s archaeological tourism marketing activities.

Government

Bangladesh government should let the BPC to take any marketing decision independently. Govt. should provide more fund to the organization for its smooth operation.

Security

Security measures should develop around the site. More security forces should deploy in the sites. The authority should take step to stop the roaming of vagabond and drug addicted people around the site.

Promotion

Strong promotion can easily attract the tourist. To attract the foreign tourist, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation should take a massive promotional campaign which will match with their expectation.

Guide

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation should increase the number of well-trained guide. It should provide adequate training to its existing guide.

Transportation

Tourists are reluctant to go the place where transportation system is not comfortable. So the narrow and broken roads should renovate for smooth, easy, & comfortable journey to the spot.

Market segment

Success of marketing largely depends on the right segment of market. Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation should segment the market & target the market properly to attract more tourists.

Specialist

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation can appoint a marketing specialist for conducting the marketing activities.

Utility

All types of utility facilities must flow smoothly to the tourist spot for providing better comfort to the tourist. Pure drinking water must be available there.

Promote the concept of spiritual tourism

We need to promote the concept of spiritual tourism. People are aware of religious tours but that is only one aspect of spirituality.

Offer a complete spirituality experience

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation should offer a complete spirituality experience to the traveler (Bangladesh & Foreign countries) & that would be the merger of a religion destination with the spirituality courses.

Conclusion

Bangladesh has a long ancient and rich history. Many people came to this land for searching their livelihood. At present, this archaeological site has a great value to the religious people. These assets are spread over the country and Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation can take care of most of the sites. If the organization takes proper marketing initiative then more tourists from home & abroad will come to visits the archeological sites and thus our country will be able to earn more revenue and foreign currencies. Only proper and effective marketing initiatives can attract more tourists to the archeological sites. For success this site, govt. and non-govt. organization should come forward. We should concentrate on the foreign tourist for earning more foreign currencies. We should segment the market properly to understand the habit and interest of the tourist of the segment. We should also take massive promotional activities to attract the tourists. We should provide all sorts of facilities to the tourists when they travel to the place. And last of all but not the least Bangladesh govt. should take initiative to advertise the spiritual tourism. The promotion must consider the demographical characteristics of the tourist. If we are able to do it then more tourists will travel to the places and thugs our tourism industry will get a new life to lead as well as our govt. will get a lot of revenue from this site.

Problem of Arco logical Tourism in Bangladesh

It can be observed that our neighboring countries have moved ahead creditworthy in the Archeological tourism. Because of their timely promotion but we are lagging behind since we have overlooked some of our prized tradition and culture. The geographical position provides us immense opportunity for such development since have people belongs to different archeological practices and more so. These archeological practices were born in Bangladesh. However, in spite of opportunities we have a lot of problems in archeological tourism the problems of archeological tourism are given below:

Advertising problem

The national tourism organization, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation in Bangladesh has not absolute attention to it. The organization has sole authority to look after the all archeological sites of Bangladesh. But the organization thinks little about the marketing of the archeological sites of the country. It has less Idea about the prospect of the archeological tourism marketing.

Transportation problem

Transportation is an important aspect of tourism. Developed transportation facilities give complacency to the tourism in visiting the sites. Well, transportation system encourages the tourists to travel more and more. But, the transportation system of our country especially in the sites is very poor. There are no motor vehicles in many archeological sites. The roads and street are very narrow and broken which causes unpleasant journey.

Security problem

Tourist especially the foreign tourist needs proper security while they visit the archeological sites. There are no sufficient security forces to provide security. The security becomes worse at night as many vagabonds and drug addicted people roam around the sites and the tourist feels insecure. But the circumstances have been developed in recent years.

Utility supply problem

Absence of sufficient utility facility to the sites pushed the tourists in trouble. Many tourist sites have no electricity, water and sanitation facilities.

Financial problem

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation has not enough funds for promotion of the archeological tourism. They cannot develop or renovate the see because of fund crisis.

Problem in implanting the plans

The govt. of our country does not decentralize the power for taking decision. Bangladesh

Parjatan Corporation does not take any decision by itself. It has to look toward to govt. to take decision so the development in marketing is not going well.

Guide

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation has no sufficient guides for tourists. The existing guides are not attentive in their job and as well as they are not well educated and trained.

Technology

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation has no modern as well as qualified engineers to renovate the sites. It has to depend on archeological department of govt. for any development activities.

Poor Image

Bangladesh is still known as a country of floods, poverty, corruption, insecurity and political unrest. Prospective Archeological tourists form bad image and they seem that they will come to destination.

Accommodation problem

Accommodations are very essential for tourist. But there is no standard accommodation in many sites in Bangladesh.

Prospect of archeological tourism

Bangladesh has bestowed with the bounties of natural beauties. Its fascinating natural beauties and its fertile land have been attracting from early civilization. Many people of different religion come to the land and aided growth and development of civilization. From the people of different religion established their place of prayer, a lot of ancient, aesthetics, mosque, temple, churches, monastery, pagoda, museum, zoo and a lot of Hill Park etc. still exist in our country. So, in this connection our country is rich enough in archeological sites. These sites are very ancient, aesthetic. The prospect of archeological tourism is excellent because the people of this unrest world become tourism minded day by day and their number is growing very fast. As people become tourism minded, they will visit the historical site of world to get some enjoyable moment in mind. And the prospect is high in our country because there are many historical sites in different places of Bangladesh. There are many archeological sites in our country such as Coxes’ bazaar, Sundarban, Moynamoti, Lalbag kella, Ahsan manzil, national museum, many mosque, temple, pagoda etc. There are five Buddhist monasteries in the world and two of them are situated in Bangladesh. So, we can attract the tourist of different countries easily.

From the above discussion we see that the prospect of the archeological tourism is very bright in Bangladesh.