Title: Tourism, labour market, and host community impacts during the refugee crisis in Cox's Bazar

Authors: Md. Nurnobi Islam; Md. Masudur Rahman

Addresses: Department of Marketing, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur-5404, Bangladesh ' Department of Marketing, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh

Abstract: Cox's Bazar turned into the world's largest refugee camp in the last quarter of 2017 when more than 1 million refugees took shelter. The impact of the crisis has not been largely examined through a tourism lens. This research examines the refugee crisis's impact on tourism businesses, tourism workers, and the well-being of host communities. For this research, primary data were collected from key informants selected through stratified purposeful sampling and analysed through a thematic analysis process. This research has found that the presence of humanitarian organisations has increased the demand for tourist-dependent businesses. However, cheap refugee labourers have created economic pressure on the host community members. The low-skilled native workers are negatively affected by the refugees. The insights from this research will help industry leaders and policymakers take measures to capitalise on the opportunities arising from this changing situation and mitigate the negative effects on tourism in Cox's Bazar.

Keywords: Rohingya; refugee; tourism; Cox's Bazar; Bangladesh.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2024.135434

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2024 Vol.14 No.1, pp.91 - 106

Received: 04 Nov 2022
Accepted: 21 Apr 2023
Published online: 12 Dec 2023 *

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