15pc growth in number of leisure tourists likely

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Kamrun Nahar Local tour operators eye a 15 per cent growth in the number of leisure tourists visiting Bangladesh compared to that of last year thanks to availability of on-arrival visa and good promotion of the tourism sector in global forums. They identified promotion of Bangladesh as one of the 10 most valued tourist destinations in a global forum like Lonely Planet, government's marketing and promotional initiatives including taking part in the international tourism fairs and recent activation of on-arrival visa for the tourists of 45 nations, as some of the reasons for this growth. Bangladesh receives slightly more than 0.3 million tourists a year out of which 45 per cent are foreign tourists including non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) and students. Only 25,000 leisure tourists visit Bangladesh every year. According to sources, a government circular on issuing on-arrival visa for international tourists was issued in December 2009 which was ignored by land and airport and immigration officials. The process has been activated again since August 16 this year. "The trend is good this year compared to last year. I hope the number of leisure tourists will increase by 10-15 per cent," Taufiq Rahman, chief executive of Journey Plus, an in-bound tour operator of the country, told the FE. Mr Rahman thinks the government's recent allocation of budget for the promotion of the country's tourism sector through its tourism board for taking part in different international tourism fairs and promotion in world media was a very good initiative which will help boost their business. He said the trend was not good at the beginning of 2011 which showed a leap in the last quarter of the year as the tour operators started receiving augmented enquiries from various countries including some new destinations. He however expressed his concern over the country's political uncertainty which puts the tour operators receiving a group of tourists in embarrassing situations if there's a hartal. "It creates a bad impression on their mind making loss to our business," added Mr Rahman, who faced such a situation during the last hartal. Also, infrastructure is major problem which includes domestic and international transportation, accessibility to tourist destinations, accommodation, restaurants and inadequate trained manpower, he added further. On the other hand, AKM Baki, a member of Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB), expects the growth to be more than 15 per cent if the on-arrival visa system can be utilised properly and the promotion of Bangladesh tourism sector can be ensured in those 45 countries getting the facility. "I hope the growth may be double that of last year by proper utilisation of the on-arrival visa and assurance of tourism promotion in those 45 countries receiving the facility," said Mr Baki. He said the interest of knowing Bangladesh among the people has increased in recent times. "Though a negative image is prevailing across the globe due to the propaganda by some non-government organisations for collecting fund out of this image, the situation has been improving," he added. Mr Baki said getting a visa to Bangladesh was a major obstacle for the foreign tourists which is now over to a great extent, adding that about 7,000 on-arrival visas were issued from August 16 until October 20 this year. "I think the term 'seeing is believing' works for the tourists. Once they visit Bangladesh their misconception goes away," he said. He said the government has now started realising the importance of tourism as one of the country's main economic drivers which can help alleviate poverty. Syed G Qadir, general manager of Galaxy Holidays, thinks that the contribution by Lonely Planet, a global travel guide book and digital media publisher owned by British Broadcasting Corporation, helped a lot the Bangladesh tourism industry by putting Bangladesh among the top 10 most valued destinations in 2011 list. He thinks that the government's promotional and marketing initiatives also helped to a great extent in achieving the 15 per cent growth. Mr Qadir also thinks that the government's sincere initiatives and strategies to promote the country's tourism sector will help maintain and increase the growth.