Bangladesh on Monday re-opened its major tourist destinations five months after a ban due to the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.
According to Kamal , the Administration Chief of Cox’s Bazar District; the beach, hotels and other amusement establishments in the tourist district of Cox’s Bazar have already re-opened.
He said that visitors were asked to strictly abide by the government’s health guidelines while visiting.
“We need to remain alert as the coronavirus is still there, only the rate of infections is lessened,” he said.
Bangladesh on March 19 banned all domestic and foreign tourists from visiting popular sites alongside a nationwide shutdown imposed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
According to a senior official at the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Mollik Hossain, considering the economic losses from the shutdown, the government has been re-opening its tourist sites gradually.
Meanwhile, a beach in the Southern town of Kuakata was re-opened nearly a month ago.
“Though the turnout was still low, Cox’s Bazar, which has more than 120 kilometres of sandy natural beach along the Bay of Bengal, will draw larger crowds.’’
The Tour Operators’ Association of Bangladesh estimates that more than 60 per cent of the country’s 6.5 million domestic tourists visit Cox’s Bazar annually.
Bangladesh has recorded 276,549 coronavirus cases and 3,657 deaths since the first case of infection was reported in the South Asian country in early March.
