Economic Reporter :
The tourism and travel industry, one of sectors hit hard by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, estimates its loss at Tk 114 billion loss due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The industry operators are not hopeful about starting the recovery process in 2021 either.
The sector insiders said a number of tour operators, hotels, resorts and catering services where some 4.0 million people are involved are now struggling to survive.
The dismal situation of this sector is also reflected in the government’s travel tax collection. The tax revenue from it during the immediate past financial year (FY) was the lowest in the last five years.
The sector operators alleged that they neither have received any fund from the government’s stimulus package nor direct budgetary support to weather odds during one of the most difficult times in the world history.
Earlier, in a report in April 2021, the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) had estimated the loss at Tk 57 billion loss until December 2020.
TOAB President Md Rafeuzzaman said the loss would double, as there was no sign of recovery in this calendar year.
“Tourism is such a sector that is the first casualty of an adverse situation, but it is usually the last to recover.”
In last fiscal year (FY), 2020-21, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) received travel tax worth Tk 3.28 billion, which was less than half of the previous year. In FY 20, travel tax collection was Tk 7.66 billion.
In FY 2016-17, the tax authority received travel tax worth Tk 9.77 billion from air route passengers.
The Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) data shows that on an average, the outbound passengers bought 217,109 tickets per month in 2019, 222,613 tickets per month in 2018, and 210,190 tickets per month in 2017.
However, the ATAB data did not compile the ticket sales information of low-cost and local airlines.
The TOAB president sought direct allocation from the government, even at low rate of interest, to help overcome the difficult situation.
He said recently the neighbouring country India allocated direct support for its tour operators and related stakeholders.
There are only 732 operators in Bangladesh. So it would not be difficult for the government to support them to sustain, he added.
Md Zamiul Ahmed, former chairman of the Tourism Developers Association of Bangladesh (TDAB), estimated that some 50 per cent of the stakeholders in this sector faced closure in the pandemic.
He said less than 20 per cent of them might come back to business, if normalcy returned, while other would disappear.
He alleged that the governments in the last 49 years (since the independence) had been reluctant to prioritise the sector, which deserved due attention.
