A luxury resort opens in Cox's Bazar

Cox's Bazar is set to get a new eco-friendly resort in May to cater to upmarket tourists from home and abroad.    

The resort -- Royal Tulip Sea Pearl Beach Resort -- is being built on 14 acres of land at Inani, some 20 kilometres away from Cox's Bazar, with an investment of around Tk 500 crore.

“We have chosen Inani to set up the five-star property thanks to its rich coral wealth and turquoise,” AHM Mokbul Hossain, its chief executive officer, said at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday.

The resort, which would come with 493 rooms, will be one of the biggest in South Asia, according to its Managing Director Aminul Haque.

The facilities include: two large swimming pools, spa, billiard room, fitness centre, amphitheatre, landscape garden, three restaurants and children's play zone. The property will also house a water park.

The resort will be operated by Europe's Louvre Hotels Group, which is allied with Golden Tulip Hospitality Group operating in the upper- and luxury segments of the market. Cox's Bazar has immense potential to attract foreign tourists as it is the largest unbroken sea beach in the world, said Vimal Singh, managing director of Golden Tulip South Asia.

Currently, it has 16 operational hotels across leading business and leisure destinations in India, with plans to establish 50 operational hotels in the Indian subcontinent by 2015, he said.

Haque, who already owns three-star hotel Sea Crown in Cox's Bazar, started construction for the resort in October 2010. A franchise and management agreement was signed with Louvre Hotels in July last year.

Prime Bank and other nine lenders raised Tk 85 crore in syndicated loans in 2010 for construction of the resort.

The resort is an eco-friendly property; wastes and water will be recycled and solar power will be used, Haque said.

It will also be the first hospitality property to introduce the timeshare concept in Bangladesh. Timeshare is a form of ownership or right to the use of a holiday property in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property.

The model also allows members of a hotel to swap or exchange time with another affiliated hotel or resort anywhere in the world depending on availability.

Timeshare members of the resort will be able to use the facilities of Interval International-affiliated 2,500 hotels and resorts in over 75 countries.

A member will be given seven days to spend in any Interval International-affiliated resort every year, he added.