4th BD Travel, Tourism Fair '12 begins Oct 11

FE Team | Published: October 09, 2012 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The 4th Bangladesh Travel and Tourism Fair 2012 will begin in the capital on October 11 aiming to strengthen cooperation among the neighbouring and regional countries in the tourism sector.
Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) in collaboration with Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) will organise the three-day fair at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the city.
A press conference was held in this connection at the National Press Club Monday. BTB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Akhteruzzaman Khan Kabir, TOAB President Hasan Mansur and Director Borhan Uddin, among others, were present on the occasion.
Tour operators and various organisations related to tourism of 10 countries including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Greece will display their products and services at 209 stalls. Of the total stalls 169 will be Bangladeshi and the rest 40 will be foreign.
The slogan of this year's exhibition is 'Regional Tourism - Key to Tourism Expansion'.
As many as 1.5 million tourists visit the country and other countries through the TOAB members while about 25,000 to 30,000 international tourists visit Bangladesh through them every year, the organisers claimed.
They expect that the total number of tourists visiting the country will exceed 0.5 million in 2012.
While answering a question asked by newsmen, Akhteruzzaman Kabir said
the government will soon formulate policy guidelines for organising tourism fairs as it has become uncontrollable in the country. Anybody having organisational activities arranges an exhibition which sometimes becomes unnecessary.
Echoing him Hasan Mansur said this is the third tourism fair in three weeks. He called upon the BTB to take the authority to organise two fairs in a year so that all stakeholders can take preparations for attending the fairs.
Three seminars will be organised on the sidelines of the fair on 'Business opportunities for micro-enterprises involved in nature tourism', 'Role of banking system in developing tourism' and 'Role of foreign missions and their economic wings in developing tourism'.
The fair would remain open from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm everyday. The entry fee has been fixed at Tk 30.