Innovation in food tourism and organizational innovation at Cox Bazar

Introduction

Cox Bazar is the longest sea beach in the world and it is unnoticeably an important destination of Bangladesh where the interests of the government, DMOs and the potential tourists rest. This place is of international uniqueness in the sense that it is the longest beach in the world with over 150 km coast. This place is potentially exploitable for tourism purposes and the government and other stakeholders are actively seeking to develop this destination within the context of tourism. The governmental policies and planning are in place and the government is recognizing the increasing importance of this location. Therefore, this area holds a very strong potential for research as an emerging destination in tourism studies. I am therefore using Cox Bazar as a case study in my research project and I will analyze the aspects of innovation within this project.

Problem Formulation

Cox Bazar is unnoticeably a potentially exploitable tourism destination regarding its natural resources and uniqueness. However, the full potential of tourism has not been reached, and this is due to the lack of attractiveness of the destination for tourists, lack of an innovative hospitality industry, and lack of development in innovative food tourism. These are potential areas that, if addressed, can make Cox Bazar a complete destination for tourists from around the world, competing with international beach destinations.

Results are publicly available

Attractiveness of Cox Bazar: 1. What is the potential of Cox Bazar in tourism for the tourists?

2. What are the main existing attractions of Cox Bazar that are drawing tourists?

3. What future attractions are needed to make Cox Bazar an internationally recognized destination?

4. How would you rate Cox Bazar as an attractive international destination? (Scale: 1-10)

Challenges• 5. What are the main challenges in the attractiveness of Cox Bazar as a destination?

6. How can these challenges be resolved?

7. What are the main challenges in the development and promotion of local food tourism experiences?

8. How can these challenges be resolved?

Food Tourism experience• 9. What do you think of local food as a potential tourist attraction at Cox Bazar? What are the main food attractions here?

10. Do you believe that new ideas such as developing food streets and other concepts can improve food tourism in Cox Bazar?

11. What is the current status of food tourism in Cox Bazar?

12. What future ideas are needed to innovate food tourism to reach its full potential at Cox Bazar? 13. How would you rate the innovation in food tourism in Cox Bazar? (Scale: 1-10)

13. Finally, can you tell us about yourself?