Home ›› 13 Aug 2021 ›› Front
Amusement parks and recreation centres have incurred a loss of Tk 1,000 crore as they remained closed for past 16 months for Covid-19 induced lockdown and restriction on public gathering.
Bangladesh Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (BAAPA) President Shahriar Kamal said, “The Covid-induced closure of amusement and theme parks affected two lakh people directly or indirectly and the sector incurred a loss of over Tk 1,000 crore.”
He said that there were 300 amusement and theme parks across the country and more than 100 of them were members of the association.
The parks remained closed during two Eids, which is the peak season for the sector, abiding by the government decision over tackling the pandemic situation, he said.
Md Minnat Ullah, manager of Tamanna World Family Park at Mirpur in Dhaka, told The Business Post that the park remained closed for almost two years for the pandemic but they had to spend Tk 5,00,000 every month to manage staff, utilities and maintenance works.
The park incurred a minimum loss of Tk 1.2 crore in the past two years, he said. Minnat said that they would require Tk 10 to 15 lakh more to resume operation of all the rides at the park as they sat idle for nearly two years.
Liton Hossain Sikder General Manager (operation) of Matador Amusement Park at Kamrangir Char said that the park remained closed during the lockdown but they had to pay staff salary and bear the maintenance cost every month. “Our estimated loss for the closure during the lockdown is Tk 2 crore. We have to spend Tk 20 to 30 lakh more once we would reopen the park,” he said.
The Cabinet Division in a notification on Thursday said tourist spots, community centres and places of recreation would reopen with half of their capacities from August 19.
Besides, public transport including buses, trains and launches will operate in full swing from August 19 maintaining health guidelines.
Health guidelines, particularly wearing masks and using sanitisers to curb Covid-19 transmission, must be maintained in the recreation spots and public transports and violation of the guidelines would lead to legal consequences, the notification read.
The notification brought a sigh of relief among the tour operators, amusement facility owners and their workers.
A number of workers said almost all the parks sent all their employees but security guards on leave when the Covid-induced closure began. Many of the employees had no option but to go to village homes for not getting a salary for long, they said.
Some of them lamented that they could not put pressure on the owners as there was no income from the parks in the past 16 months.
BAAPA General Secretary Probir Kumar Saha told The Business Post that they can maintain health guidelines. “The parks are located on open spaces and it is safer than closed
buildings and social distance can easily be maintained in open space,” he said.
Probir said they had developed a standard operating procedure in collaboration with the Tourism and International Association of Amusement Parks for the safety of visitors and all the member parks were instructed to follow the procedure.
He also called on the government to declare some incentives for the amusement sector as it was one of the most affected sectors by the Covid fallouts. “Incentives would help us to rebound,” he said.
