Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon Saturday said the government has undertaken various projects to develop the tourism sector aimed at bringing more tourists to the country, reports BSS.
"The government has also undertaken various projects for implementation under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) to create more opportunity in the tourism sector," he said while replying to a question from treasury bench member Shamsul Haque Chowdhury in the House Saturday.
The PPP projects are: Tourism Resort and Entertainment Village at Parjatan Holiday Complex, Cox's Bazar, International Standard Tourism Complex at existing Motel Upal Compound of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) at Cox's Bazar, A 5-Star Hotel and Other Facilities at existing Motel Sylhet Compound of BPC at Sylhet and Exclusive Tourist Zone at Sabrung, Cox's Bazar.
Mr Menon said the government also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on March 12, 2015 to establish the exclusive tourist zone at Sabrung in Cox's Bazar district. Besides, a project "Improvement of Tourism Facilities of Parki and Patenga in Chittagong," is awaiting the planning commission's approval, the minister informed the House.
He said the government has a plan to collect two water transports for sightseeing in the largest mangrove forest Sundarbans and expansion of the existing Motel at Mongla, adding, "The government also took different initiatives to improve the tourism sector."
Meanwhile, the government has also started to train young tour operators to increase their skills to provide quality services to huge numbers of foreign tourists, expected during the "Tourism Year" to be observed in 2016.
"As per the government decision we are taking preparation to attract one million foreign tourists in our country in tourism year. As part of our preparations, we are imparting skill development training to the tour operators," Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) Akhtaruzzaman Khan Kabir said.
Despite having wide range of tourism products, he said the country's tour operators could not utilise those due to absence of proper marketing strategy.
"Side by side international tourism promotion, we have to ensure that we are able to provide quality services to the foreign tourists," he said.
Last week, the BTB has imparted training to a group of young tour operators targeting the tourism year. "We will continue the process," Mr Kabir said.
The BTB is preparing a policy guideline titled "visit Bangladesh campaign" to make the tourism year a success, BTB sources said.
The campaign divided its task into four stages - preparatory, pre-year promotion, celebration and evaluation. Apart from planning of pre-year promotion, the BTB has already made a draft event calendar for the tourism year, the sources said.
The government will organise an international conference on Buddhist Tourism circuit in the capital in October to attract foreign tourists to visit historic Buddhist places in Bangladesh.
Ministers from 13 Buddhists countries and high officials of World Tourism Organization (WTO) will attend the conference.
In the proposed budget for 2015-16 fiscal year, Finance Minister AMA Muhith allocated Tk 2 billion to celebrate the year.
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