Cox’s Bazar Correspondent :
With the passage of time, Cox’s Bazar emerged as the wonderful tourist paradise in this part of the world.
The presence of green hills and meadows, wonderful scenario of the sea-shore of the Bay of Bengal, and enchanting beauty of nature all the way transformed Cox’s Bazar into a heaven for tourists from home and abroad.
Despite positive sides and excellence, there are widespread allegations that the tourist capital of the country could not provide first rate services to the tourists due to some inadequacy in the whole process.
The situation became apparent during the last week which was the last week of the current tourist season. The allegation again came true when the tourist capital failed to offer normal services to a huge number of tourists arrived with their family members.
Cox’s Bazar failed to manage the pressure of record number of tourists and all the dreams of amusement of the tourists have gone in vain. They went through hassles in every areas of their visit including problems in the case of accommodation, food supply, transport, and security management, according to sources.
The current week, being the last week of the tourist week, Cox’s Bazar became overcrowded with a record number of tourists. Weekly holidays accompanied by the holiday on the occasion of the Independence Day added a new avenue for the tour-loving people to pay visit to the country’s tourist capital. But tourists at large were trapped with various problems on their arrival and as such all the charming scenario they cherished in individual mind before undertaking tour was diminished in the process, according to sources.
Mega beach carnival organised by Clemon has widely enthralled the visiting tourists by the way of mounting enjoyment. The presence of increased number of visitors to enjoy the seashore has opened a blessing for hotel owners who are doing brisk business. One non-A/C room which was rented for Tk 500 at normal time is now being charged Tk 3,000 to Tk 8,000 at the end period of the pick season, sources informed. On Thursday, thousands of tourists gathered on the sea shore from morning to evening. Laboni point, Sea Inn point and Himchhari to Diabetic point saw the never ending lines of visitors.
Traffic jams were created from Cultural crossing to Kaktoly crossing as hundreds of vehicles arrived with the tourists. The residential hotels and guest houses at the city and the outskirts have been fully booked due to the presence of visiting tourists numbering more than one lakh.
According to hotel owners, allotment of rooms for new guests is hardly possible up to next Sunday.
Meanwhile, taking into account the rush of visitors numbering more than one lakh at the end of the tourist season, the business community has increased the prices of different commodities.
The visitors with their respective family members started arriving in the tourist city from last Wednesday. The heavy rush of tourists resulted in a wide-ranging problems of accommodation and supply of food in many hotels across the district. Maximum number of tourists arrived on Friday by private cars or hired transports. Not being able to arrange any accommodation in the hotels and rest houses at different areas, many have rented private rooms adjacent to the main city. The visiting tourists have lost their zeal, enthusiasm, and delight for being trapped into varied problems which were unthinkable to them.
In addition to Cox’s Bazar, tourists are strolling at Inani shore, Himchhari fountain, Darianagar Nature Park, and Dulhajra Bangabandhu Safari Park. Many tourists were found visiting Adinath Mandir and Teknaf including Saint Martin’s Island and other places of interest.
Director of Hotel Regal Palace Abu Bakar Siddique, while talking to journalists , informed that the current week is the last period of the tourist season, and from next month the number of tourists will go down.
General Secretary of Cox’s Bazar Hotel Owners’ Association Abul Kashem Shikdar said that businessmen this time have taken the advantage of earning more profit to compensate the losses incurred during political unrest in the past.
On the other hand, Director of Protik Genia Apartment Mizanur Rahman informed that last week more than 20 apartments were booked by the tourists who were denied booking in hotels and guest houses.
One family coming from Mirpur of Dhaka narrated about different problems relating to accommodation, food, transport and other areas resulting into total dissatisfaction in their merriment mission.
Many tourists alleged that due to lack of adequate drives and monitoring by tourist police, the security problems have also become apparent.
