Tourism professionals once used to say that travellers stayed back home during Eid-ul-Azha and that it was always a dull period when compared to Eid-ul-Fitr. But it appears that has changed this year because of a calm political situation and with people spending more to satisfy their needs.
Cox’s Bazar – the world’s longest natural white sand beach – is a point of pride for beautiful Bangladesh. One of the most popular tourist destinations, it drew sun-worshippers from as far away as Europe and Southeast Asia once upon a time. It is also slowly luring foreign and domestic travellers, industry officials say.
“Foreigners come here, but we cannot offer everything they need. But still they enjoy the beach and of course the warm-hearted people here,” said Mahbubul Alam Akash, who hires out colourful beach chairs and sun umbrellas. “A large number of Bangladeshis crowd the town now and their numbers have been increasing over the past year.”
According to official estimates, the number of visitors to Cox’s Bazar has been increasing and some 600,000 visitors travel to the beach town to enjoy its panoramic view.
“The winter season helps us to go through rest of the year, when the numbers of travellers drop dramatically along with revenue,” said an official of a major hotel.
But he said internal tourism was seeing a boost because, not only Bangladeshis, but a large part of the expatriate community is visiting this southeastern tourist town.
In fact, the private sector is playing a major role in luring these expatriates by offering five-star services at reasonable rates. Cox’s Bazar now boasts of a number of classy hotels as well as the country’s first surf club, launched by a British expert and owned by a major Bangladeshi business group. Hundreds of tourists crowd the world’s largest natural white sand beach and bask in its spectacular sunsets.
Young Bengali surfers are now at hand to teach or help visitors with surfing boards and also act as guides. There are other beach sports as well.
The maximum temperature here during the winter is only about 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but tourists on the seashore enjoy cups of tea, snacks, or the very popular green coconut water.
A spokesman for the state-owned Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) said tourism was growing every year, with the government doing its best to lure travellers to the South Asian nation.
BPC statistics show that just 11,179 people visited the country in 1992, but the figure jumped massively in 2000, to 207,199 visitors, who brought in about Tk2.65bn ($46m).
This figure reached approximately 600,000 in 2012. Of the total number of travellers in 2000, nearly 18.56% came to Bangladesh for pleasure visits, 16.47% were on business trips and the remainder – nearly 70% – had multiple reasons for visiting. Britons, Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Indians, Nepalese, and Pakistanis topped the list of foreign travellers. The majority of the expatriates in Cox’s Bazar were Indian, Sri Lankan, and South Korean.
More high-class hotels are being built, but the beauty of the town has been somewhat spoiled by the unplanned mushrooming of hotels and inns. The government needs to address this issue and ensure that, in the future, the development of the town is carried out in a planned method.
