Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon yesterday said the government is committed to make the tourism year-2016 a success and explore the untapped but highly potential tourism sector of the country.
“The government would like to see the next year as tourism year in true sense and for that we need cooperation from private sector for making exciting tour packages and offering warm hospitality, he said when speaking at the Annual Performance Agreements (APA) 2015-16 ceremony of his ministry at the secretariat here.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared the 2016 as tourism year earlier and launched a campaign titled Visit Bangladesh 2016 setting a target to make volume of foreign tourists double to one million from the current half a million annually.
The tourism year campaign will be kicked off by organizing a beach carnival at the country’s most exciting tourist spot Cox’s Bazar on 31st December this year and a series of activities will be carried out through the year to attract both foreign and domestic tourists.
Centering the tourism year, the government will organize a two-day international conference titled ‘National Buddhist Workshop and International Buddhist Circuit Conference’ with the participation of 13 Buddhist populated countries in the capital from October 27 aiming at showcasing the Bangladesh Buddhist heritages to the foreigners.
During the signing ceremony, the minister urged the officials of different organizations under his ministry to be more sincere to accomplish their task in proper but timely manner.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Khorshed Alam Chowdhury inked Annual Performance Agreements 2015-16 with heads of the different organization under the ministry.
