A tourism branding campaign called “Beautiful Bangladesh” has been developed. I have seen the promotional on foreign television channels. The film is surely a high quality one, but the reality is far below the expected level.
My recent visit to Cox’s Bazar, often termed the world’s longest beach, has given me the strong impression that it is yet to become a major tourist destination. During my weeklong stay there, I didn’t see a single foreign backpacker in the area except some NGO activists who were there for seminars and workshops. A lot of company staff go there for sales conferences and other meetings.
There are so many ornamental words we use for Cox’s Bazar, like miles of golden sands, tall cliffs, surfing waves, rare conch shells, colourful pagodas, Buddhist temples, tribes, delightful seafood, etc. We don’t hesitate to say that all these make Cox’s Bazar one of the most talked about tourist spots in the world.
Cox’s Bazar really has many striking features. The long sandy beach that stretches from the mouth of the Bakkhali river, going all the way to Teknaf, welcomes tourists for bathing, sun-bathing, and swimming.
It is the main attraction of Cox’s Bazar. The breathtaking beauty of the setting-sun behind the waves of the sea is captivating. Handmade cigars and handsome products of the Rakhayne tribal families are good buys. These are all true. But the reality is that the limitations here are limitless too.
There have been so many instances when our tourism bosses in the government, particularly the Tourism Board officials, tried to say that the Cox’s Bazar beach had the potential to take on the look of holiday destinations such as Pattaya in Thailand or Galle in Sri Lanka.
But the reality is far from it. The whole area is being developed in an unplanned way. The beach area has been encroached and hundreds of buildings have sprung up there, causing a negative effect on the environment.
Infrastructure activities, especially the construction of hotels and motels, are going on unabated. Some of the hotels are even touching the beach. New hotels with attractive facilities are announcing their arrivals regularly.
Hundreds of new buildings have sprung up in recent years, giving it the look of another concrete jungle like Dhaka.
On the main beach itself, there are dozens of shops selling souvenirs, toys, clothes, fast food, and even mosques, giving the beach the look of a slum.
Now we come to the tourism activities there. No planned, well-coordinated activities are there to showcase Bangladesh. The only thing that the tourists can do is sit idly in their hotel rooms.
Recreational activities on the beach are too meagre. There are no nightlife activities in Cox’s Bazar. No one knows how this can be started. The government tourism policy planners are in a quandary, while the private tour operators are scared to do anything there because of the rigid attitudes of the district administration.
The situation in Cox’s Bazar is in no way pro-tourism. Perhaps our tourism bosses think that tourists do come here to sleep in hotels or motels. But the truth is, tourists want to experience different things. Tourists come to spend, but we don’t have any way to keep them busy and bring money out of their pockets.
Anyone you talk to there will give you examples of development activities there. But the main problem in Cox’s Bazar is that all the development activities there are unplanned and uncontrolled.
The problems are not confined to the seaside – nearby hills are also under threat. But no guideline is followed; no scheme can be seen to bring things in order. Trees are being cut indiscriminately on the hillside, and lands are also cleared to make way for buildings.
There is a beach management committee to keep it clean. But the beach itself and its surroundings do not give the impression that a committee is there to manage it.
The increasing number of visitors from various companies (for general meetings, sales conferences, etc) is also having an impact on the marine environment. Many of them take coral home as souvenirs.
As a result, traders and locals frequently collect corals and sea shells from nearby islands. The litter there is clearly visible to visitors. Hundreds of empty food packets and plastic water bottles are regularly spotted across the beach area. You will even see garbage in many places.
The Beautiful Bangladesh video production now being shown on foreign channels is a really good initiative. But we need to take a closer look into the spots. Cox’s Bazar, being one of the primary locations for attracting tourists, needs extra care.
The construction boom should be controlled to keep the ecology healthy there. The government can also think of offering nightlife activities, at least for foreign tourists, with adequate security measures. Private operators can be given specific locations to start tourism businesses, to match global standards while maintaining our local culture.
