Kawsar Khan
Concord Entertainment Company Limited (CECL) plans to invest Tk 15 crore over the next one and a half years to expand its resort facilities at Foy’s Lake in Chittagong, in a bid to cash in on a steady inflow of tourists.
In the next five years, CECL, a concern of Concord Group, will also construct an additional 20 buildings under the picturesque resort at a cost of Tk 40 crore. This construction will add 400 more rooms to the existing facilities.
Presently, the CECL resort has some 20 cottages and 50 rooms beside the lake.
“It is the beauty of this place that draws in more and more visitors every day to come and stay,” SM Kamaluddin, chairman of the group, told The Daily Star on Tuesday.
“We want to expand the resort as we are expecting a huge influx of tourists within the next few years,” said Kamaluddin.
“We are currently experiencing a 70 percent rate of occupancy, which is very high. Even a 50-60 percent rate of occupancy for resorts and hotels is perceived to be satisfactory,” said Anup Kumar Sarker, general manager (marketing) of CECL.
“On weekly and other holidays, the demand for our resort increases manifold and we cannot meet the increased demand, which prompted us to extend the existing structure,” said Sarker.
People are showing growing interests in the resort for various reasons, including personal visits, honeymoon, corporate meetings and an opportunity to stay close to nature.
Concord will invest the money, as part of its Tk 400 crore investment plan, to develop the amusement facilities in Chittagong that began at the end of 2004.
The company has invested Tk 160 crore in the area that includes Foy’s Lake Amusement World, Sea World Foy’s Lake and Ananda Bhuban, company officials said.
“The company has mega expansion plans to develop the tourism facilities in the area, such as installing cable cars, individual cottages, artificial water falls and a five-star hotel.
Concord built the resort on government-owned land at Foy’s Lake on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis in a 50-year agreement.
The company entered the amusement sector in 1999 by launching Fantasy Kingdom near Dhaka. It entered Chittagong at the end of 2004 with similar projects.
Presently, about six to seven lakh visitors arrive in the tourist spots of Chittagong from different parts of the country.
Courtesy of www.thedailystar.net
