The ethereal view of the ocean surrounded by coconut trees at his maiden visit to a tiny island of St. Martin in 1996 attracted one Shiblul Azam Koreshi to be involved in tourism business.
The enduring and endearing tourism potentialities encouraged him to establish a company 'Abakash Parjatan Ltd' 15 years back and the company contributed a lot so far to harness the business opportunities.
"St. Martin, surrounded by the panoramic view of the ocean and dotted with coconut trees really enthralled me to do something new and thus I got involved with the business ventures," Shiblul Azam Koreshi told The Financial Express.
In 1997, he with his some friends set up a resort on the island at the time when the place witnessed hardly any tourists. A small number of engine-driven boat was the only transport to go to the island during those days.
"I bought two boats- a single-engine driven boat with capacity of 25-30 seats and another double engine with 40-45 seats to ferry the tourists from Teknaf to St. Martin," Koreshi said.
Such mode of communication marked the beginning of making the island one of the most attractive tourist destinations for domestic and foreign visitors.
Over the time, a lot of development happened with increasingly presence of tourists, which demands more.
Now, engine-boat has been replaced by modern ship, hotels and resorts with inadequate facility was filled with 60 hotels and resorts with adequate facility and more than 100 food shops, and mobile network was brought for the first time by the mobile phone operator Robi in the tiny island.
In 2003, the government shifted jetty from Teknaf to Dam Damia to make the journey smooth and faster.
The development also brings fortunes for the islanders, as most inhabitants, who lived primarily from fishing, now turn businessmen.
Now, per day on an average 8,000 tourists visit the place while the number was very poor a decade ago. From 2000, number of visitors started to rise significantly.
Coconut, which is staple food after rice for around 10,000 inhabitants, now fails to keep pace with the increasingly presence of visitors. It is now being imported from Myanmar-not very far away from the island-to quench their thirst.
It is possible to walk around the island in a day because it measures only 8 square kilo meter, shrinking to about 5 kilometer during high tide.
To Koreshi, development for attracting tourists has no end. Now, he is working to keep the island free from pollution, as he thought this natural beauty should be protected from any environmental hazards.
It is the only coral island in Bangladesh in the northeast part of the Bay of Bengal, about 9 km south of the tip of the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf peninsula. A small adjoining island-Chhera Dip-also allures tourists.
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