A memorable visit to a happiness destination

Some phone calls will always bring smile to your face, especially those from your near and dear ones and they are also the harbinger of goodness, positivity, and more importantly happiness. Phone calls from Arif, Iqbal and Salam bhai were amongst the few calls. There was an invitation to visit and experience their new leisure venture in Hobiganj, Sylhet and also discuss the prospects of such more ventures in different parts of Bangladesh.  When I reached the happiness destination, I was mesmerised by the beauty of the resort, which has been carefully minted keeping the 'mother nature' intact. It looks like a painting by a great artist. It took a great deal of passion, love and commitment to go for the establishment. At The Palace, they aim to deliver an undiluted experience of carefree luxury. Everything from housekeeping and maintenance down to the finest details is ready to be offered for the guests soon.  

In the evening, we started our discussion on the prospect of this growth sector. The investors are quite optimistic about it and said probably The Palace is going to open a new window of investment opportunity in the tourism sector of Bangladesh.

Javed, a team member who has a long career in various business sectors, said Bangladesh that has a long heritage of culture, and festivals offers raw scenic beauty. Tourism sector should be one of the cornerstones of economic development and a gateway to international markets. Through this our country can rope in a good number of foreign visitors every year.  Asaf noted that tourism projects generally require massive initial investment, for which private financing may become difficult for most companies. This can be feasible as a sustainable business through participation of the public sector. A member of the team, Mehtab, who has a long experience in insurance and financial sector, suggested public-private partnership (PPP) as a viable model for bankrolling tourism projects where tourism projects are financed and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private companies to share capital involvement, risk, responsibility and revenues. The underlying mind for establishing a partnership is that both the public and the private sector have certain characteristics creating advantages of services or project delivery. PPP models consolidate the strength of government and private sector for providing more efficient services. The roles and responsibilities of the partners may vary, but the overall role and responsibilities of government generally do not change.

Tourism also benefits a wide variety of sectors of our economy. I particularly place importance on measuring efficiency in investing in tourism that can be measured through outbound and inbound traffic generated in the last 5 years and also look at the occupancy rate in different hotels and resorts in Bangladesh. This can also be corroborated by multiple studies on customer satisfaction which is the sole output of the business. Tourism activities have the significant potential to contribute to our GDP. Tourism investments not only include hotel and entertainment constructions, but also cover modernisation of airports, railroads, seaports etc. This will also help draw increased foreign direct investments in Bangladesh.  

As discussion progressed the night was progressing too. In 48 hours of trip we saw various aspects of this resort. It has different types of interesting villas overlooking lakes and forest -- villa café, lake café. Added to this are tower building, hanging bridges, state-of-the-art swimming pool, entertainment zone, mosque, pineapple, guava, jackfruit orchard, flower gardens etc. More importantly, the three gutsy but humble entrepreneurs hired a great deal of service-oriented individuals from different parts of the world to run the business. There is no doubt that The Palace is going to be an ultimate happiness destination. Personally, it has become my favourite.

Kudos!

The writer is CEO of Paper Rhyme Advertising Limited. saif@paperhymebd.com