BSS, Dhaka :
Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon on Tuesday said Bangladesh has set a target to get one lakh Buddhist tourists after including itself into South Asian Buddhist tourism circuit with India, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
“Presently we are getting only about 3,000 Buddhists tourists annually, so I am not telling that we would be able to increase the number overnight but we have set a target to get one lakh Buddhist tourists gradually,” he told newsmen during the two-day international conference on Buddhists tourism in the country.
According to Indian Bureau of Statistics, about 2.25 lakh foreign tourists visited Gaya in 2014 over two lakh in Bodhgaya and 1.25 lakh in Nalanda of India and 1.25 lakh in Lumbini of Nepal, the birth place of Lord Buddha, while Myanmar got 3.5 lakh Buddhist tourists last year.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the conference on Buddhist tourism circuit, the first of its kind in the world that is also marked as the biggest ever tourism related international gathering of the country’s tourism history, at Bangabandhu International Conference Center.
Tourism ministers, high-ranking government officials, experts, academicians and other stakeholders from 13 Buddhist populated countries-China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka and host Bangladesh are participating in the event.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon on Tuesday said Bangladesh has set a target to get one lakh Buddhist tourists after including itself into South Asian Buddhist tourism circuit with India, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
“Presently we are getting only about 3,000 Buddhists tourists annually, so I am not telling that we would be able to increase the number overnight but we have set a target to get one lakh Buddhist tourists gradually,” he told newsmen during the two-day international conference on Buddhists tourism in the country.
According to Indian Bureau of Statistics, about 2.25 lakh foreign tourists visited Gaya in 2014 over two lakh in Bodhgaya and 1.25 lakh in Nalanda of India and 1.25 lakh in Lumbini of Nepal, the birth place of Lord Buddha, while Myanmar got 3.5 lakh Buddhist tourists last year.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the conference on Buddhist tourism circuit, the first of its kind in the world that is also marked as the biggest ever tourism related international gathering of the country’s tourism history, at Bangabandhu International Conference Center.
Tourism ministers, high-ranking government officials, experts, academicians and other stakeholders from 13 Buddhist populated countries-China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka and host Bangladesh are participating in the event.
