Dhaka city has the largest population of Bangladesh. As it is the busiest city, the people here suffer a lot. That is why any holiday seems heavenly to the people of the city. The people of the city look for an escape -- near hills or the sea to breathe a sigh of relief. For the more financially solvent, the holiday destinations branch out to Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Nepal, or other neighbouring countries.
The middle class, however, have to calculate their money very carefully; and so, they have to rely on domestic tourism. For example: Cox's Bazar, Sylhet, Rangamati, Sajek, Sundarbans, etc.
In the last two years, all classes of people have relied heavily on domestic tourism due to travel bans due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That is why, day by day, just as the number of resorts being built in or around Dhaka is increasing rapidly, so is their importance to the urban population.
A rise in complaints
But just as the development of the tourism industry and luxury resorts is attracting more and more people, there are more issues arising with it. In Cox's Bazar, for instance, a dal-bhaat-aloo bhorta combo was being sold for Tk300-400. Food vendors have kept the price of food as high as possible for travellers. The hotel rent, too, has been increased by three to five times.
There have also been allegations against off-season tourism or resorts in Bangladesh. The cost range sometimes exceeds that of foreign countries. Since I have had the privilege of travelling to and from several countries, I can say that the normal cost of resorts and tourism in Bangladesh is much higher than that of neighbouring countries.
Way over capacity
Apart from the financial woes of the people, its effects have been multifaceted. Many tourists had to return before the scheduled time as the budget of the people who had planned to spend a three day vacation in Cox's Bazar ran out in one day. Hundreds of people have been walking on the streets of Cox's Bazar these winter nights, as hotel rents have skyrocketed and crowds of people have not paid their rent.
This time, when Cox's Bazar literally turned into a sea of people over the three-day holiday in December, I learned from the newspapers that more than five lakh people visited Cox's Bazar, although this tourist centre of the country can accommodate a maximum of one and a half lakh people.
During the holidays, all the tourist centres of the country were overflowing with crowds. Needless to say, none of them can be compared with Cox's Bazar. But what do the traders of this sector think about the impact of the incident that took place with the tourists?
In the last few years, I have seen a lot of outrage on social media about the “cut-throat” prices of some fashion houses in this country. Many people, at that time, were calculating how much they could afford to buy from here, compared to the costs of travelling to Kolkata with their families to shop there. Not only from media reports, I also personally know of many middle class families who go to Kolkata for Eid shopping.
The same situation is seen with tourism now. I am sure that many tour operators from the surrounding countries will take advantage of this annoyance of the people and will soon offer various attractive packages to attract the tourists of Bangladesh. And this situation has been created by the traders of this sector.
Who’s at fault?
In this situation, many victims have strongly criticized the local administration for not taking any steps to protect the people. This country has a consumer rights law, through which the administration must have taken swift action. But they did nothing more than take steps to show one or two people. Very rarely have we heard of the administration of this country standing by the general people. So I did not expect any proper action from the administration.
But the question is, why did the businessmen in this sector do such a horrible job? The lack of their interest in creating a good business in the long run is not evident only in this case. Almost everyone is focused on making money at the expense of the consumers. Wherever there is a problem of supply-demand balance, traders have taken many times more money from the people.
Those involved in the tourism business say their sector suffered the most during the pandemic. They did not get much of a government loan incentive. Although an allocation has been shown on paper, only a handful of institutions have received the smallest part of it.
Medium and small enterprises and unemployed workers in this sector have received nothing, although they have suffered the most. These are all true words. So their argument may be that they have tried to raise capital to cover their losses by earning this extra money from the people. But these traders cannot blame Covid-19 for the loss, as such crises have occurred repeatedly before the pandemic, too.
Holding us back
We are lagging far behind in attracting foreign tourists compared to the countries around us. We discuss various crises in this sector. But even if foreigners are left out, the sector can become a sector of immense potential through domestic tourism. The poverty alleviation of the people of this country is not happening at the desired level, but at present, the financial capacity of some people from the middle class to the upper echelons has increased. As a result, if these people travel within the country, there is a huge potential in this sector.
Developing a sector means increasing money transactions and creating new employment opportunities. So the government should take immediate action so that this sector does not lose the confidence of the people of the country.
It is noteworthy that when holidays on Thursday and Sunday are added to the weekly holidays of Friday and Saturday, many people go on trips. But such incidents happen only once or twice a year. The government must come forward to help the people overcome this suffering. Moreover, many people in the country live away from their families due to job opportunities. So it is very important for them to spend time with their families during these holidays.
Security risk
Another thing is quite noticeable. Our country's tourism sector is not yet safe for children and women. Recently, a woman was raped while visiting Cox's Bazar. This will make not only the people of the country but also foreigners think twice when they come here. So ensuring security for the people is also a major issue, which is the responsibility of the concerned authorities and the government.
At one time people had the idea that the longer a person works, the better. In the long run, the science of human resource management has shown that man is not a machine, so if he is forced to work for a long time, his productivity decreases. Rather, people are much more productive if they are given the opportunity to rest, when people are comparatively less busy, when people are allowed to spend more time with their families, and when they are able to ensure their entertainment.
That is why we will see that in recent times, many countries of the world are increasing the weekly holidays and also reducing the working hours. So it's time for us to think differently. Our tourism industry is not sustainable, because our government is not paying attention. But Bangladesh has immense potential. We are just failing to harness those possibilities.
The sector needs to be developed in a sustainable manner by formulating equitable policies and ensuring their strict implementation, based on discussions between the government of the country and all stakeholders in the tourism sector. And in this case, the interests of the most important stakeholders must be kept in mind.
Yes, people who go for tourism are the main stakeholders in this sector. If we do not look after their interests and do not act accordingly, tourism in Bangladesh will never become an “industry,” much less become a sustainable one.
Rakib Al Hasan is an author, activist, and award winning international youth leader of Bangladesh. He is the first Bangladeshi to win the “Outstanding Young Leader of Asia Award.”
