Saturday | 18 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Saturday | 18 January 2025 | Epaper

TOAB demands scraping overnight stay limit for St Martin tourists

Published : Friday, 25 October, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 289
Business Correspondent
The Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) has demanded cancellation of the clause in Tour Guide Act which has limited tourists' overnight stay in St Martin and visit to other mountainous coastal areas. 

TOAB President Mohammad Rafiuzzaman made these demands in a press conference at Jatiya Press Club on Thursday putting a warning that if the clause not being scraped TOAB will be forced to take to the streets to realize the demands.

He said, "Despite our strong objection, the government has decided to limit the number of tourists to stay overnight in St. Martin," at the cost of the industry at peak business season. 

According to the rule a maximum of two thousand tourists can travel to St Martin in November, December and January and stay overnight. In February, the government will stop tourist to St. Martin for cleaning. 

But the leaders of the industry raised objection saying that this will cause a lot of loss to the business of ordinary entrepreneurs. 

Rafiuzzaman said "About 10,000 people live in St Martin and all of them are dependent on tourism for livelihood. If tourism stops in St Martin they will lose jobs.  

Along with that, huge investment of entrepreneurs will be at risk. The ban on tourists in the hilly areas during the peak season will also cause huge loss to entrepreneurs," he said.

TOAB President said, "Apart from limiting tourists to St. Martin, the new gazette requires some rules and regulations regarding registration of tour operators which are very difficult for us to comply with." 

Tourism industry will suffer if such restrictions and policies mentioned in the gazette are implemented. The rules that require tour operators and tour guides to pay Tk 50,000 registration fees, Tk 10 lakh bank certificate and Tk 3 lakh security deposit are not workable for new operators. It will discourage new entrepreneurs to advance the industry in the near future.
He also said tax on tour operators' services should be abolished. A 15 percent tax on tour operator services is increasing tour package price and travel hassle. 

The entire tourism industry, especially the outbound and domestic tourism will be greatly affected, he said. As the industry is a vast one interspersed with many sectors, imposition of value added tax (VAT) may hinder the development of the industry, he said.



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