Staff Reporter :
People crowded various recreation centers and tourist spots including Cox’s Bazar and Kuakata Beach to celebrate the vacation.
However, most of the people did not follow the hygiene rules amid spike in Covid-19 infection cases across the country.
Cox’s Bazar tourism industry insiders said that hotels, resorts and restaurants were set to do business of over Tk100 crore during the Eid holidays. But this time the inflation and rise in Covid-19 cases might reduce this amount.
There are more than 500 hotels, motels, resorts and guest houses in Cox’s Bazar where around 40-50 per cent of them were occupied during the vacation, according to industry people.
They said businesses lost thousands of crores of taka in 2020-2021 due to the Covid-19 shutdowns and restrictions. This holiday rush will help them recover somewhat from that loss.
Abul Kashem Sikder, President of the Cox’s Bazar Hotel-Motel, Guest House and Cottage Owners’ Association, says most of the hotels in the beach town are ready to welcome the visitors.
“Cox’s Bazar has more than 520 accommodation facilities for tourists, including hotels and motels. It has the capacity to hold 120,000 people at a time. About 50-600 per cent of rooms in these residential hotels have already been booked. Hopefully, the remainder of the hotel rooms will be rented soon,” said Sikder.
“This time around, hundreds of thousands of tourists are expected to visit Cox’s Bazar every day during the Eid ul Azha holiday.”
But Sikder admitted that the newly opened Padma Bridge has led to a surge in tourism in Kuakata due mainly to its close proximity to Dhaka while the country’s popular tourist spot Cox’s Bazar fails to garner attention during this Eid-ul-Azha.
According to tour operators and hotel owners, most hotel rooms in Kuakata have been booked for three days from July 12 to July 14 while more than 50 per cent rooms in Cox’s Bazar hotels remain vacant during this period.
They said that the opening of the Padma Bridge
impacted tourism leading to a surge in Kuakata because of its less travel time with the capital.
Kuakata beach has never experienced such a huge pressure of tourists before; there are over 120 hotels and motels here, most of which face similar pressure,’ said Shikder Resort and Villas assistant general manager Al Amin.
‘We have a capacity to entertain over 450 guests in two luxurious hotels – Shikder Resorts and Villas and Ocean View Hotel,’ Al Amin he added.
‘For three days from July 12 to July 14, hotels are fully occupied with guests mostly from Dhaka, and even from Chattogram, the adjacent district of Cox’s Bazar.’
Kuakata Tour Operators Association president Ruman Imtiaz Tushar said that except Kuakata there was no pressure of tourists anywhere in the country due to flood in Sylhet and a further surge of Covid-19.
Moreover, he said that a section of holidaymakers travelled to Nepal by air and to India by road during this vacation as they had many more attractive spots than Bangladesh.
