  The Sundarban Reserve Forest (SRF) of Bangladesh provides tourism services to
local and international visitors. Indeed, tourism is one of the major ecosystem
services that this biodiversity-rich mangrove forest provides. Through a
convenient sampling technique, 421 tourist respondents were interviewed to
assess their willingness to pay for the tourism services of the Sundarban,
using the Zonal Travel Cost Method (ZTCM). The estimated annual economic
contribution of tourism in the Sundarban mangroves to the Bangladesh economy is
USD 53 million. The findings of this study showed that facilities for watching
wildlife and walking inside the forest can increase the number of tourists in
the SRF. The findings also show that the availability of information like
forest maps, wildlife precautionary signs, and danger zones would increase the
number of tourists as well. Thus, the government of Bangladesh should consider
increasing visitor entry fees to fund improvements and to enhance the
ecotourism potential of the Sundarban mangroves.
