A scenic view of Seagull Hotel in Cox's Bazar. The management of Seagull Hotels Limited plans to set up another five-star hotel in Teknaf.

Seagull Hotels Ltd, the owning company of five-star Seagull Hotel in Cox's Bazar, is going to set up another five-star hotel in Teknaf, a southern resort and coastal area, 500 kilometres away from Dhaka.
The company management has already initiated process to purchase land in Teknaf to set up the hotel to be completed within next three years at a cost of around Tk 600 crore, said Managing Director of Seagull Hotels Masoom Iqbal.
Seagull Hotel started its journey in 2002 and reached the break-even point last year.
"We have a target of buying a stretch of 60 bighas land in Teknaf for the hotel as the number of foreign and local visitors is increasing rapidly there," he said.
Masoom said the proposed hotel will have golf course, theme park, ropeway, marine aquarium and marine drive facilities.
He urged the government to formulate a befitting policy for the important tourist spots so the places in the coastal districts can be used properly as tourist spots.
He also called upon the government for making available an air landing space, bus and good railway communication facilities near Teknaf so that tourists can go there easily at cheaper costs.
Many small hotels are springing up in Teknaf and some other important tourist spots in the southern coastal districts, which will not be helpful for sustainable tourism development, Masoom said.
Development of hotels and motels in an unplanned and scattered manner will not help grow tourism business, as this will evolve a chance of damaging greenery, which is the main attraction of the tourist spots, he added.
"We have the potential of US$5-10 billion worth tourism business a year from Cox's Bazar, Teknaf, Sonadia and St Martin's coral island," he said.
The flow of local and foreign visitors increased manifold over the last few years as people are increasingly becoming aware of the scenic beauty of Cox's Bazar, Kuakata, Sonadia, St Martin's and Teknaf, the Seagull MD said.
According to unofficial statistics reported in media, in 2007 arrivals of foreign tourists in Bangladesh grew by 35 percent over the previous year.
In 2007, 2.7 lakh tourists came to Bangladesh, while the number was 2 lakh in 2006. However, the number of visitors was 2.8 lakh in 2003.
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