Cox’s Bazar hotels offer discounts for stranded tourists

The hotel authorities in Cox's Bazar are giving special discounts on room tariff for the tourists who got stuck at the tourist town due to nationwide transport strike.

Tourists are getting around 40% extra discounts on room rents alongside the previous discounted rates.

Moreover, for stranded tourists who could not leave the town despite having a schedule.

"A bus full of tourists left Cox's Bazar police line for Chattogram at 7pm today," said Cox's Bazar Superintendent of Police (acting) Md Rafiqul Islam.

Mentioning that they made an announcement regarding the special arrangement around 3pm Saturday, the SP said, "We provided the service to those who came to police lines after getting the notice."

Around 50,000 tourists, who were scheduled to leave Cox's Bazar on Friday and Saturday, got stranded due to the transport strike called by bus owners in protest against the recent fuel price hike.

Some of the tourists left the town by air counting extra fare while others had to travel through short distance vehicles to get out of Cox's Bazar.

However, commuters alleged that the short-range vehicles were charging double fare than the usual rates.

Jane Alam, owner of the Cox's Bazar Taj Corporation and Travels Centre, said the price of return air tickets from Cox's Bazar rose sharply.

"The prices of air tickets which were Tk3,800-Tk5,000 before the strike, now stands at Tk7,000 to Tk13,000. Many tourists had to go back without tickets as they could not afford it," he added.

Abul Kashem Sikder, general secretary of the Federation of Tourism Owners Association of Bangladesh, said tourists were left in a state of extreme unpleasant situation due to the sudden transport strike.

"Hoteliers are offering special discounts for the stranded tourists to slightly relieve them from sufferings due to the strike," he said.