Earnings from inbound visitors grew 59% last year

The contribution of inbound visitors to the national exchequer grew around 59% year-on-year in 2021, thanks to the roll-out of massive vaccination across the South Asian region that also successfully contained the pandemic.

Earnings from inbound visitors amounted to a little over Tk. 2,279 core last year in contrast to Tk. 1,196 crore in 2020 ((10 months), according to data from the Bangladesh Bank collected by Bangladesh Tourism Board.

Industry insiders have attributed such a growth mainly to business travellers and foreigners working in Bangladesh or engaged in humanitarian activities as the pandemic had barred leisure tourists from entering the country.

In 2020 and 2021, leisure tourists hardly visited the country owing to Covid-19. Those who came to the country were foreigners who work in Bangladesh on tourist visas, non-resident Bangladeshis and business travellers, Masud Hossain, an inbound tour operator and managing director of Bengal Tours, told The Business Standard.

“Last year, altogether 10 people came to Bangladesh for travel purposes via my company. The number was more than 500 before the pandemic hit,” he added.

Bangladesh Tourism Board has not, however, updated data on international tourist arrival after December 2021, according to sources knowledgeable about the matter.

To regularly update data of tourist arrivals in the country, the tourism board is now willing to develop a software with the assistance of the special branch of Bangladesh police, emulating the models of countries such as India, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

In 2020, the inbound tourism sector suffered a 35% negative growth year-on-year.