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Hartal hits tourism hard
[Bangla Daily Star] The tourism industry in Cox's Bazar is going through hard times due to political unrest and frequent hartals since February 28.Most of the hotels and motels in the town remained almost vacant this month, the last month of the peak season, said hoteliers in Cox's Bazar, the home of the world's longest beach. Businesses in Cox's Bazar consider the period from November to March as the peak season and April to October as the off-peak season. Targeting this year's peak season, they made considerable investment but are now on the verge of incurring a huge loss. Humayun Kabir, general manager of Hotel The Cox Today, told The Daily Star that they apprehended a loss of Tk 5-6 crore this season. "We made huge investment ahead of the peak season, but tourists' turnout has been on the decline since February 28 due to continuous hartal and road blockades," he said. Corporate bookings that were fixed three to six months ago are also being cancelled now, he added. "Many of our corporate bookings have been cancelled and the latest bookings for March 28-29 were cancelled due to the 36-hour hartal." The political unrest has not only hampered the corporate bookings but also interrupted privately arranged family tours, which are a common feature at this time. Families from across the country go on a trip to Cox's Bazar after the SSC examinations. But this year several examinations had to be deferred due to hartals and most of the families eventually either lost interest or did not feel it safe to go on their planned tour, Humayun observed. "Our hotel had a full reservation for this season, but now just 20 percent of the rooms are taken and the rest are vacant," he said. Humayun added if there were train links between Cox's Bazar and the rest of the country, tourists might have used that service. "It is regrettable that we could not install an 80-kilometre railway track from Dohazari in Chittagong to Cox's Bazar in the last 42 years since our independence," he said. Posted by: Fred 2013-03-30 |
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