Bangladesh among top 40 countries to visit in 2014

Source: Photograph: Belinda Meggitt/The Multimedia Travellers

Bangladesh, above, is among a number of often-overlooked destinations hoping to attract travellers this year.

British newspaper Guardian has rated Bangladesh 36 among top 40 countries to visit this year.

"Visit before the tourists come", the Bangladesh tourist board's slogan introduced in 2006, still applies, the newspaper says in its reported published yesterday.

Comparing Bangladesh with its bordering neighbours, Burma and India, the article points out that it remains largely overlooked, despite having assets that include the world's longest beach (Cox's Bazar's 77 miles of sand, pictured) and the tiger's share of the world's largest mangrove forest (the Sundarbans, home to Bengal tigers).

The Guardian reports that although travelling in Bangladesh is not easy and warns of the protests involving the January elections, visitors are sure to be warmly welcomed.

The report also highlights Lovedesh.com, a website by British-Bangladeshi Yasmin Choudhury, and mean visitors should check before booking but that focuses on the positives of otherwise stigmatised "third world" destinations, and to ensure her parents' homeland is not written off as a pitiful place, known only for floods.

The list, which also includes Kolkata, India, put Cape Town, South Africa as the number one travel destination for 2014.