‘Involve private sector more in tourism dev’

Civil Aviation and Tourism minister Rashed Khan Menon saw low budgetary allocation for the tourism sector as no major reason for hampering the development of the country's tourism sector.

"This year the budgetary allocation in tourism sector has come down by one-third. Still I think the possibility of the sector is there if we can involve the private sector more and can help them," said the minister while addressing as the chief guest at the inaugural session of an international workshop.

Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) organised the programme titled 'Presenting Bangladesh in the Positive Way' at a city hotel for the civil aviation and tourism journalists. BTB chief executive officer (CEO) Akhteruzzaman Khan Kabir chaired the workshop.

International travel and tourism journalist Imtiaz Muqbil made the keynote presentation at the workshop.

Mr Menon said although the country's tourism sector has not yet reached to a satisfactory level, a trend of traveling has grown among the general people as they often visit various tourist spots on different occasions.

"I think the interest for travel has been created among the general public. But the tourism products have not been highlighted properly," the minister noted.

Describing role of media, he said there still have been negative reporting on tourism sector which are based on reality.

"Negative reporting is still there which are based on facts as there is not proper infrastructure in the country. But we should highlight the positive things and stories of the possibilities more to flourish tourism," the minister added.

As many as 30 journalists from different media participated in the workshop to better understand the global tourism scenario in general, the case study of Thailand tourism industry and how to project Bangladesh through a positive message in the global media to help develop tourism industry and dispel negative image among the global visitors.