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- 248Shares
- Ishtiaq Husain
- Published at 01:18 AM June 30, 2017
Tourism industry experts say the killing of foreign nationals at the Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1 has been a huge blow to the industry
The number of tourists visiting Bangladesh has dropped drastically since the terror attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan, Dhaka last July.
Within four or five months of the terrorist attack, Bangladesh had almost no tourists arriving from either Japan or Italy. Although the situation has improved since, tour operators say that the current numbers reflect a mere 20% of the normal in-flow of tourists, especially from those countries.
Tourism industry experts say the killing of foreign nationals at the Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1 has been a huge blow to the industry. Hundreds of tourists from different countries have canceled their visits to Bangladesh since then.
Tour Planners Limited Managing Director Faridul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune that some 700 Japanese tourists engaged their services last year, but post the Gulshan terror attack, only about 150 Japanese tourists have sought their services.
Each year, a total of 5,000 to 6,000 Japanese tourists used to visit Bangladesh. The Gulshan attack changed that scenario completely, according to Md Masud Hossain, the executive director of Bengal Tours Limited.
“Over the past year, only 1,000 tourists came to Bangladesh. As the arrivals from Japan declined, 16 tour guides who would have handled the Japanese tourists, have quit. The overall slump in tourism has caused a total of 15 tour guides adept in other languages to also quit,” lamented Masud.
Riverain Tours Limited CEO Syed Mahbubul Islam Bulu is one of the major in-bound tour operators in Bangladesh. His main market is Italy.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/06/30/tourism-sharp-decline-since-dhaka-terror-attack/