Ramadan, World Cup dent Cox's Bazar tourism
The tourism business in Cox's Bazar has taken a nosedive since beginning of the ongoing month due to Ramadan and football World Cup, putting the people dependent on the sector in dismay.
Most of the hotels, motels and guest houses, over 200 in number, are now almost empty, scores of shops built on both sides of the roads leading towards the sea beach are barren with very few customers or no one at all.
The main attraction of the town, the longest natural sea beach of the world, which used to be buzzing with thousands of tourists, is now almost barren, putting the lives of around 60,000 people, who live from the earning of tourism business directly or indirectly, at stake.
Visiting the beach Sunday afternoon, The Daily Star correspondent found a handful of tourists at Laboni, Sugandha and Kalatoli, three main points of the beach. Locals said these three points used to be crowded with the presence of thousands of tourists every afternoon.
Presence of tourists usually remains very low during the month of Ramadan every year, said Nurul Islam, member secretary of Sea Beach Management Committee, adding that the ongoing monsoon and football World Cup fever had further dealt a blow to the tourism business.
Nurul, also coordinator of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, Cox's Bazar, said most of the hotels were struggling to earn their maintenance costs with less than 10 percent room occupancy on an average.
Echoing him, Humayun Kabir, general manager of Hotel The Cox Today, said just 15 percent out of 276 rooms of his hotel was occupied on Sunday.
The occupancy rate is 10 to 15 percent in the month of Ramadan, he said, adding that they were incurring losses every day.
A thin presence of tourists also brings woes to low-income people. About 800 photographers, who live from the earning of taking pictures of tourists on the beach, are now almost workless.
Dulal Sharma, a photographer, said he used to earn Tk 300 to Tk 500 a day, but now his income had declined to Tk 50 to Tk 100.
Hussain Sharif, a 12-year-old boy, sells garlands made of sea-shells on the beach. He said his daily income was around Tk 300 during the peak period, which had plummeted to around Tk 50 a day.
Abdus Samad, a driver of a three-wheeler, said his earning was around Tk 1,200 a day in the peak season which had come down to almost half nowadays.
Contacted, Md Abul Hossain, additional deputy commissioner (general) of Cox's Bazar, said around 60,000 people directly or indirectly dependent on tourism business in the district were having a tough time these days.
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