Domestic tourists’ mind-set towards responsible tourism management: a case study on Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Abstract

PurposeNotwithstanding been a significant stakeholder in the sustainable and responsible tourism (RT) development and management process, worldwide very few studies exclusively investigated tourists’ attitudes towards them. Moreover, studies are especially missing for developing and least developed countries where domestic tourism market is more significant than international market. Besides, in Bangladesh, there is no study as yet which aimed to identify domestic tourists’ attitudes towards responsible tourism management (RTM) and to its triple bottom line (TBL) components. So, the purpose of this paper is to fill these gaps, contributing thus to the existing RTM literature.Design/methodology/approachAfter conducting extensive literature review, this study followed both the exploratory (in-depth interview) and single cross-sectional descriptive (survey) research designs. Further, this study used descriptive statistics (frequency distribution analysis) and multivariate dependence data analysis technique (multiple regression analysis) to analyse the data collected from the 385 sample respondents through systematic random sampling.FindingsBased on the findings, the present study argues, Bangladeshi tourists have positive attitudes towards each of the TBL components and to RTM, however, there is scope for further improvement. This study also suggests that there is a close link between tourists’ attitudes and their socio-demographic characteristics.Originality/valueWith the support and reference to this study, destination management organisations can work on each of the TBL components to enhance Bangladeshi tourists’ positive attitudes towards RT practices at Cox’s Bazar (CB). Moreover, this study on CB, Bangladesh also contributes to the RTM literature and minimises the known literature gap for developing countries.