Bangladesh eyes 1.0m Chinese tourists

FE Team | Published: September 11, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Bangladesh is ready to welcome one million Chinese tourists to visit Buddhist Heritage sites in the country in 2016, declared as tourism year by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
"We sought Chinese cooperation for welcoming one million Chinese tourists targetting the Tourism year 2016," Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon told journalists after emerging from a meeting with ambassadors of different countries with a large number of Buddhist population at the state guest house Padma in the capital Thursday, reports BSS.
The government will organise a two-day international conference titled "National Buddhist Workshop and International Buddhist Circuit Conference" with participation of 13 Buddhist populated countries in the capital from October 27 aiming at showcasing the Bangladesh Buddhist heritages to the foreigners for further flourishing overall tourism.
The Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry in collaboration with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) will organise the conference to be participated by UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai along with high officials from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka.
As part of the conference preparation, Mr Menon and Foreign Minister Mahmud Ali held a meeting Thursday with Ambassadors of China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan, and representatives of Ambassador of Thailand and Korea and High Commissioner of India.
Mr Menon said his ministry would uphold the centuries-old Buddhist heritage in Bangladesh to the people of the participating countries during the conference.
He said Bangladesh got only 10,000 Chinese tourists last year though presently the Chinese tourists are dominating the world tourism industry in terms of tourist numbers. "We urged Chinese Ambassador to promote Bangladesh tourism in his country so that we will be able to receive one million from China next year," he said.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Khorshed Alam Chowdhury and CEO of Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) Akhtaruzzaman Khan Kabir were also present at the press conference.
Mr Kabir told the news agency that this will be the first ever international conference to make a platform for promoting Buddhist tourism.
"We are expecting impact of the conference during the celebration of the tourism year in 2016," he said.
Bangladesh has immense potentials to explore the opportunity of Buddhist as there are over 500 Buddhist ancient monasteries and temples in Bangladesh against the total global figure of 6,000.
Director of Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) Masud Hossain told at a workshop in the capital last week that Bangladesh can earn $ 6.0 billion dollar in revenue in a year, if it can attract 0.15 million foreign tourists to visit Buddhist heritage sites annually.
He said there are about 450 to 480 million Buddhists across the world and they frequently visit the ancient holy Buddhist archaeological sites and relics.
About 0.225 million foreign tourists visited Gaya in 2014 while over 0.2 million in Bodhgaya, 0.125 million in Nalanda and 0.125 million in Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Buddha, he said, adding that although three ancient Buddhist sites-Paharpur, Mahasthangarh and Mainamati-are located in Bangladesh, only 3,241 foreign tourists visited the sites till date.