The tourism and travel industry, one of sectors hit hard by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, estimates its loss at Tk 114 billion possible loss until now. Industry operators are not hopeful about starting the recovery process in 2021 either.
The sector insiders said a number of tour operators, hotels, resorts, airlines and catering services where some 4.0 million people are involved are now struggling to survive.
The dismal situation of this sector is also reflected in the government's travel tax collection. The tax revenue from it during the immediate past financial year (FY) was the lowest in the last five years.
The sector operators alleged that they neither have received any fund from the government's stimulus package nor direct budgetary support to weather odds during one of the most difficult times in the world history.
Earlier, in a report in April 2021, the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) had estimated the loss at Tk 57 billion loss until December 2020.
Talking to the FE, TOAB president Md Rafeuzzaman said the loss would double, as there was no sign of recovery in this calendar year.
"Tourism is such a sector that is the first casualty of an adverse situation, but it is usually the last to recover."
Considering risk factors, banks were not willing to provide loans to the tour operators, as there were travel restrictions in many of the countries across the world, he added.
On the other hand, the main source of travel tax is outbound passengers. It is mandatory for the outbound passengers, except for infants, from Bangladesh to pay travel tax at certain rates for travelling by air, land or sea.
In last fiscal year (FY), 2020-21, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) received travel tax worth Tk 3.28 billion, which was less than half of the previous year. In FY 20, travel tax collection was Tk 7.66 billion.
In FY 2016-17, the tax authority received travel tax worth Tk 9.77 billion from air route passengers.
A K M Badiul Alam, income tax commissioner of Zone-1, said travel tax collection nosedived due to the Covid-induced travel ban or restriction in many countries.
He also said domestic air passengers do not require paying travel tax, while passengers traveling to other countries by land pay a nominal amount of tax.
Meanwhile, the number of outbound workers has also dropped significantly. As per data of the outbound migrant workers, some 700,159 went abroad in 2019, whereas the number dropped to 217,669 in 2020.
The Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) data shows that on an average, the outbound passengers bought 217,109 tickets per month in 2019, 222,613 tickets per month in 2018, and 210,190 tickets per month in 2017.
However, the ATAB data did not compile the ticket sales information of low-cost and local airlines.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) - the UN's specialised air transportation agency, said as the coronavirus began its global spread, the air industry came to a virtual standstill by the end of March 2020.
The pandemic also impacted global tourism severely, given that more than 50 per cent of international travellers used to reach their destinations by air.
According to a report of the ICAO on January 15, 2021, air travel dropped by 60 per cent in 2020, while air industry lost US$370 billion in the pandemic.
The ICAO said a regional breakdown in the loss showed $120 billion loss year-on-year in the Asia-Pacific region, $100 billion in Europe, $88 billion in North America; followed by $26 billion, $22 billion and $14 billion in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Africa, respectively.
The TOAB president sought direct allocation from the government, even at low rate of interest, to help overcome the difficult situation.
He said recently the neighbouring country India allocated direct support for its tour operators and related stakeholders.
There are only 732 operators in Bangladesh. So it would not be difficult for the government to support them to sustain, he added.
Md Zamiul Ahmed, former chairman of the Tourism Developers Association of Bangladesh (TDAB), estimated that some 50 per cent of the stakeholders in this sector faced closure in the pandemic.
He said less than 20 per cent of them might come back to business, if normalcy returned, while other would disappear.
He alleged that the governments in the last 49 years (since the independence) had been reluctant to prioritise the sector, which deserved due attention.
doulot_akter@yahoo.com