The Bangladesh Tourism Board is going to observe World Tourism Day 2013 on September 27 with a stress on promoting existing water bodies of the country as a tourism product.
The board officials made the announcement at a press conference at Bangladesh Tourism Board office in the capital on Sunday. The theme of this year’s World Tourism Day is ‘Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future’.
Addressing the press conference, Bangladesh Tourism Board chief executive officer Akhtaruz Zaman Khan Kabir said that they have failed to sale water bodies including rivers, canals, haors as a product to the tourists though these are potential spots for sustainable tourism.
He said haors are important for community and participatory tourism for which we want to promote haors as a product of tourism sector.
To mark the World Tourism Day, BTB with the help of Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry chalked out many programmes.
BTB will organise a colourful rally on September 27 at 8:30 am which will start from Ramna Restaurant and end at Teachers Students Centre of Dhaka University, said the organisers.
Environment and forest minister Hasan Mahmud is scheduled to be chief guest at the rally where DU vice chancellor ASM Arefin Siddiqui will also be present.
Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Department of Archaeology, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh, Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh, Tourism Developers Association of Bangladesh, Bangladesh In-bound Tour Operators Association, Bangladesh International Hotels Association and many other stakeholders will participate at the rally.
Different organisations will also organise workshops, talk shows, cultural programmes, photo exhibitions, seminars, debate competitions, boat racing, television documentary exhibition, food festival, open air concert, cycle rally, online photo competition and haor festival.
Poribesh Bachao Andalan chairman Abu Naser Khan said that there are many haors in the country which tourists cannot visit due to lack of infrastructure development.
He urged concerned authorities to do development work but not destroy the beauty and environment of haor areas.
Naser said that POBA and BTB are jointly organising the 4th Haor Festival at Jagannathpur, Sunamganj, for two days.
At the festival, there will be traditional agricultural and fisheries materials on exhibition, discussions, farmers’ game show, football tournament, cock fight, traditional cake festival, swimming, boat racing, kite flying and tree plantation.
Musa Ibrahim, the first Bangladeshi ever to climb the summit of Mount Everest said that to break the monotony water safari can be introduced in the country like they have done in Africa.
-With New Age input
