Economic Reporter :
Hotels in Dhaka’s upmarket areas have been experiencing a slump in business even as a Tourism Year goes on. Thousands of foreigners have cancelled bookings after the recent attack on a Gulshan café.
Many local and international organisations cancelled their scheduled programmes at hotels and conference centres after the carnage on the first day of July.
People related to Bangladesh’s top exporters, the readymade garment sector, say foreign buyers now want to have negotiations with them in other countries.
Around 10,000 foreigners cancelled tours to Bangladesh in the one and a half months or so since the attack, according to Tour Operators’ Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) President Toufiq Uddin Ahmed.
“The guests stay in hotels during the tours. We are facing great losses after they have cancelled their tours,” he told The New Nation.
He sees no way other than launching a campaign to regain the trust of foreigners.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the services sector contributed 56.35 percent of the total GDP in the 2014-15 fiscal year, while the contribution of hotel and restaurants was a little over 1 percent.
With the rise in the contributions of the two sectors, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared 2016 as Tourism Year as a way of taking the sectors further ahead.
But the attack in Gulshan came as a huge blow to the hospitality sector.
Seventeen of the 20 hostages killed during the cafe siege were foreigners.
Several countries, including the US, the UK, and Australia, raised the alarm for their citizens travelling to and in Bangladesh. Three international conferences scheduled to have been held in Dhaka between July and September have also been shifted.
According to the Hotel, Guesthouse and Restaurant Owners’ Association, there are 60 hotels and guesthouses in Dhaka’s upmarket areas of Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara and Uttara.
Baton Rouge restaurant in Gulshan was very busy with programmes of local and international organisations.
Hotels in Dhaka’s upmarket areas have been experiencing a slump in business even as a Tourism Year goes on. Thousands of foreigners have cancelled bookings after the recent attack on a Gulshan café.
Many local and international organisations cancelled their scheduled programmes at hotels and conference centres after the carnage on the first day of July.
People related to Bangladesh’s top exporters, the readymade garment sector, say foreign buyers now want to have negotiations with them in other countries.
Around 10,000 foreigners cancelled tours to Bangladesh in the one and a half months or so since the attack, according to Tour Operators’ Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) President Toufiq Uddin Ahmed.
“The guests stay in hotels during the tours. We are facing great losses after they have cancelled their tours,” he told The New Nation.
He sees no way other than launching a campaign to regain the trust of foreigners.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the services sector contributed 56.35 percent of the total GDP in the 2014-15 fiscal year, while the contribution of hotel and restaurants was a little over 1 percent.
With the rise in the contributions of the two sectors, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared 2016 as Tourism Year as a way of taking the sectors further ahead.
But the attack in Gulshan came as a huge blow to the hospitality sector.
Seventeen of the 20 hostages killed during the cafe siege were foreigners.
Several countries, including the US, the UK, and Australia, raised the alarm for their citizens travelling to and in Bangladesh. Three international conferences scheduled to have been held in Dhaka between July and September have also been shifted.
According to the Hotel, Guesthouse and Restaurant Owners’ Association, there are 60 hotels and guesthouses in Dhaka’s upmarket areas of Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara and Uttara.
Baton Rouge restaurant in Gulshan was very busy with programmes of local and international organisations.
