Cox’s Bazar buzzes with holidaymakers

Thousands of people have thronged the tourism hotspots in Cox's Bazar taking advantage of a 3-day holiday.

This time, the holidaymakers have turned out fortunate as the weekly holidays and the International Mother Language Day, which is also a public holiday, are three days at a stretch.

It ushered a ray of hope for the tourism related businesses of Cox's Bazar to make up for the losses they had incurred due to Covid-19 induced shutdown.

Some five lakh tourists were estimated to have flocked to the world's longest natural sea beach and its adjacent tourism sites on Friday. All the hotels and resorts were found booked on the day.

Apart from regular forces, additional members of Tourists and District Police have been deployed to ensure safe movement of the tourists in the city.

Amin Uddin, a tourist from Dhaka's Uttara, said he and his family members got exhausted staying home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That is why he took a chance to go on a pleasure trip at Cox's Bazar.

But he didn't anticipate that there are thousands more who thought the same and thronged to the beach-city.

Riyad Iftekhar, general manager of residential hotel White Orchid, said the city has more than 450 residential hotels and resorts. All of those have been filled with tourists marking the holidays.

Mohammadia Guest House Manager Shafiqul Islam said the number of tourists is higher than the accommodating capacity of all hotels and motels.

Those who came here without booking hotel rooms struggled to manage accommodation. The city has accommodating capacity for around 1.5 lakh tourists, but the number of tourists has reached five lakh this time.

Syed Murad Islam, executive magistrate and assistant commissioner (tourism cell) of Cox's Bazar, said they were doing best to prevent the second wave of coronavirus despite the excessive pressure of tourists.

He said two mobile courts of the district administration have been deployed in the hotel-motel zone to prevent any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, the director of Hotel Ocean Paradise, Abdul Quader Mishu, hoped that the huge number of tourists would help recover the Covid-induced losses.

"We are hoping for a good commercial period ahead," he said.

Describing tourism as potential industry, Deputy Commissioner of the district Mamunur Rashid said the authorities are always ready to serve the tourists coming to Cox's Bazar.

Information centers have been set up at 11 points including Laboni, Sugandha and Kalatali beaches. Awareness campaigns are being carried out on the beach over maintaining hygiene rules.

At the same time, mobile courts are being conducted there to ward-off harassment of tourists, he added.

MD Hasanuzzaman, superintendent of Cox's Bazar Police, said police are always on alert for the safety of tourists.