Arifur Rahman Rabbi
Tour and travel operators in Bangladesh need financial support to meet their working capital deficit for a turnaround from the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, said Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh president Md Rafeuzzaman.
Speaking to The Business Post, Rafeuzzaman pointed out the sector’s requirement in the upcoming budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 to recover from the crisis caused by the pandemic.
Tour and travel operators have lost around Tk 5,700 crore for the devastating impact of the ongoing pandemic, said Rafeuzzaman.
“As the government put a travel ban to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the operators almost sat idle since last year. They also lost their working capital to meet up the operational costs,” he said.
In such a situation, the next budget should have an allocation for the sector to provide financial support to meet the deficiency of working capital, the business leader said.
The government should also provide policy support to the tourism sector such as waiving tax and fees for trade license renewal so that they can provide service to the tourism sector, he said.
He said the government was giving some incentives or rebates to the aviation sector but the tourism sector remained deprived.
“Tourism industry is an industry when everything in the world remains calm. If people's income remains okay and there is peace in their minds, then this industry is well managed,” Rafeuzzaman said.
“There is no opportunity to work as an individual in the tourism industry. It is a holistic industry that involves 113 sub-sectors and 18 ministries,” said Rafeuzzaman.
Tourists across the world expect very high for hazardless travel, secured food and lodging, efficient spot-visits, a cost-effective transaction in every step whether it is a business or a personal recreational tour, he said, adding that tour operators come into the scene to address such demands of tourists and provide all the services they need.
As the pandemic spread in Bangladesh, all hotels, motels and tourist spots remained closed since March 19, 2020, as per the decision of the district administrations and restrictions were relaxed on a small scale in August 2020 when the coronavirus infection rate went down.
But the second wave of the pandemic in few months again shattered the industry forcing over 100 establishments catering to tourists and thousands of workers in the sector to remain almost idle since the closure.
About job cuts in the pandemic, the TOAB president said, “The tour operators did not fire any staff but other sub-sectors may have seen job cut problems. However, they did not lay off any staff.”
The tourism sector is on the frontline to bear the brunt of the pandemic as the first restriction that came was a travel ban. Tourists cannot visit places even if they wish forcing the entire industry closed, he said.
He finds the major challenge for the sector is dealing with the pandemic.
