Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon yesterday said the country would see a breakthrough in the tourism sector by next year as the government is going to take programmes to attract more foreign tourists.
“We’ll try to make a break-through in the country’s tourism sector by next year … our efforts will be to increase the sector’s contribution to GDP from 2.1% now,” he told a discussion on “Development of Southern Part and Tourism Industry” at a hotel in the capital. Barisal Division Development Forum (BDDF) arranged the seminar.
Dhaka city president of Workers’ Party Abul Hossain presided over the function while lawmaker Sheikh Tipu Sultan, Professor of Dhaka University Dr Sikdar Hedayet Khan and central committee members of the party addressed, reports BSS.
Tourism development activist Ziaul Haque Hawlader presented the keynote paper on the problems and prospects of tourism industry.
Menon, who is the president of and Workers’ Party, said Barisal division is still deprived of development compared to other divisions in the country. He favoured projecting Barisal’s unique potentials before all to lift the division out of the deprivation.
Listing the government’s various development projects, he said a number of mega infrastructure projects in the list have specially been designed for Barisal division.
He said Kuakata Watch Tower would be set up through Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Besides, he said, steps have also been taken to set up world-class motels there aimed at utilising untapped potentials in Barisal.
“We want to bring more tourists in Bangladesh’s attractive tourist destinations. one tourist create jobs for three people,” said Menon.
Referring to Malaysia and Maldives, he said these Muslin countries have developed a lot in the tourism sector but Bangladesh is lagging behind despite existence of untapped tourist resources.