Hotels in tourist spots back to usual business

Hoteliers, after suffering huge losses due to sluggish business in the past few months following political unrest, have now started receiving increased number of visitors.
According to some of the hotel owners, they had a large number of tourists on Friday following an improvement in political environment.
Zillur Rahman, owner of Shawdesh Tourism and some commercial apartments in Cox's Bazar, said  Cox's Bazar and Saint Martins experienced a large tourist traffic on Friday after a long pause.
The employees of hotels, motels and restaurants are now passing busy time to provide services to the travelers, he said.
The tour operator also said, hotels, motels, resorts and restaurants, which were shut due to political turmoil, have resumed their operations following the rising tourists' turnout.     
Abul Kashem Sikdar, secretary of the Cox's Bazar Hotel-Motel and Guest House Owners Association said since the last three to four days, visitors have started to pour in.
"We hope the situation will be better day by day if the political situation does not deteriorate again," he said.
But it is not possible to recover the previous losses which were sustained in the last two and half months, he added.
He said the hoteliers in Cox's Bazar incurred loss of nearly Tk 750 million during the last two and a half months. Usually the hotels' occupancy rates go high from November to March, as it is the peak season for tourism in Bangladesh.
Many small and medium-size hotels and resorts in Cox's Bazar remained closed during the political turmoil. Around 300 residential hotels are located in Cox's Bazar district alone.
The hotels of main tourism spots across the country including Cox's Bazar, Kuakata, Bandarban, Rangamati and Sylhet remained empty as tourists could not make any tour plans fearing political violence.
Hotel Sufia International in Rangamati is also reappointing its employees, who were on temporary leave, as the business condition is improving.
Safiqul Islam, director of the hotel said they are calling in their employees to be re-appointed as they have started receiving clients.
He said as the area is a tourism spot, the hotel is fully dependent on visitors.
Habibur Rahman, manager, Hotel Neelanjana, said they did not get any customer from November to mid-January following political unrest. But the occupancy rates are now increasing presently.
His hotel sustained losses to the tune of around Tk 0.6 million every month, Mr Habib said.
Imran, general manager of Hotel Britannia in Sylhet, also said the business has comparatively improved now than before.
The number of local tourists decreased during turmoil by 90 per cent compared to that of the same season last year, according to officials of the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB).
Besides, the foreign clients cancelled their scheduled trips to Bangladesh due to political unrest. They visited other countries like Thailand, Nepal, India, Malaysia and Singapore instead.  
Cox's Bazar, the world's longest sea beach, usually sees a big influx tourists each day during the winter season.