Asif Showkat: Foreign exchange earning from tourists and other arrivals to Bangladesh in first four months of 2008 increased by 13.58 per cent over the same period last year.
January saw the biggest 33.55 jump in earnings from holidaymakers and business tourists over the year-ago period on the back of a surge in arrivals after the devastating cyclone Sidr on November 15, 2007, tourism officials and operators said.
Earnings from tourism totalled Tk 232.15 crore in the January-April period this year, up from Tk 204.43 crore of the same period last year.
Tour operators attributed the growth to less or no hassle at the airport during the emergency rules, while tourism promotion officials took credit for it, saying their strengthened campaigns lured more globetrotters into Bangladesh.
Foreigners spent Tk 74.93 crore in foreign currencies in January 2008, compared with Tk 56.11 crore of the year-ago period.
The March figure was, however, down by 6.25 per cent from February earnings from foreign tourist arrivals.
Incomes from tourism were Tk 52.78 crore in March and Tk 45.94 crore in April, marking gradual declines from January peak.
Tourist arrivals marked significant rises over the years with about 2.89 lakh foreigners travelling to Bangladesh in 2007, up from about 2 lakh in 2006 and 2.07 lakh in 2005.
The increase was 135 per cent to 39,345 persons in January 2008, compared with January 2007 arrivals, officials said.
‘Increased number of aid workers and journalists toured Bangladesh during the weeks after the cyclone Sidr. Many of them had longer stay like for 15 or 30 days,’ an official said, analysing the tourist growth trend in the Sidr aftermaths.
A significant number of Chinese and Thai nationals also entered Bangladesh for jobs, especially in mobile phone companies, contributing to the growth in arrivals during the period, hospitality industry sources said.
If the planned ‘China town’ is built in the Dhaka city outskirts, more Chinese citizens will be arriving in Bangladesh in future for business purpose, they said.
‘Arrivals of foreign tourists in the country increased as the airport and immigration department are now free from harassment,’ said MA Muhaimin Saleh, president of Association of Travel Agents Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation chairman Shafique Alam Mehedi told New Age on Monday that the state-run promotion agency arranged several tourism fairs in different parts of the country throughout the year to attract more tourists.
Foreign diplomats stationed in Bangladesh were invited to those fairs so that they could project the country positively, he said.
Worldwide tourists’ movement reached 898 million in 2007, according to the World Tourism Organisation, which forecast that by 2010, international tourist arrivals would reach 1 billion annually.
Reported on New Age-2008-07-22
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