Target business, corporate visitors
New hotels and guesthouses are coming up in the country’s premier port city Chittagong to tap the rising demands for comfortable accommodation and better hospitality services for businesses including foreign buyers. A rise in industrial activities and overseas trade has recently pulled in investments for establishing hotels in Chittagong, the major business city after the capital Dhaka.
In recent years, more than 20 hotels and guesthouses launched operation in Chittagong targeting local business executives and professionals, and foreign buyers, who frequently visit the port city for business purposes.
“We are here to mainly attract foreign buyers and corporate travellers,” said SM Shahab Uddin, general manager of Well Park Residence launched last year.
He said Well Park launched operation targeting foreign buyers coming to negotiate prices with the garment factories in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) of Chittagong.
He added there are 5,000 to 6,000 factories in EPZs and more than 300 buyers come to Chittagong every month to place orders to these factories.
“They look for hotels with better standard that ensure safety and security along with comfortable accommodation, hygienic food and modern communication facilities,” he observed.
These new hotels and guesthouses have come up finding a lack in the market of better hotels as there were only a handful of modern hotels in the port city until 2000.
The only known hotel that could partly meet the expectations of foreigners was Hotel Agrabad. But due to limited accommodation capacity in that hotel, many foreigners, especially buyers, tended not to stay in Chittagong overnight. Most of them used to return to Dhaka on evening flights, said hoteliers and businesses.
Insiders say investment to set up better standard hotels and guesthouses began to rise since 2000.
It got a boost further after the success of The Peninsula Chittagong which launched operation in the port city in 2005 in a bid to attract foreign travellers.
Shahab said over 30 hotels and guesthouses launched operation in the city in the past decade.
“There was a vacuum in the market earlier. And considering the prospect of growth in business centring the Chittagong port, a vacuum is still there,” he added.
“Still there is a need to establish a couple of international standard hotels,” said the official of Well Park, which registered 60 percent occupancy in the first year of operation.
“We have achieved our target,” he said, claiming that many of the guests are foreigners, especially buyers of export-oriented garments.
Badruzzaman, manager of another newly established hotel, The Avenue Hotel and Suites, echoed Shahab Uddin.
“Still many foreigners don’t spend nights here due to a lack of global standard hotels. I think two five-star hotels can easily do business here,” he said referring to local and foreign top executives coming to Chittagong for business purposes.
But investment in hotel business did not come from entrepreneurs in Chittagong.
“Because, return on investment is slow in hotel business. But nowadays the entrepreneurs, who have seen the prospects, are investing,” he said, citing the potential of growth of businesses in Chittagong in the coming days after construction of the deep-sea port.
ANM Shahed, general manager of Orchid Business Hotel, said the boutique hotel launched operation seven months ago and has been registering 40 percent occupancy on an average since then.
“We have yet to provide all amenities to attract corporate travellers including foreigners. We hope to log good business after we have all amenities such as banquet hall and spa in place within this year,” he said.
Monowara Hakim Ali, owner of the oldest Hotel Agrabad, termed the growth in hotels and guesthouses a positive sign.
“It’s a very good sign. Investment in hotel industry is needed to promote business,” she said adding, “We are also expanding the capacity of our hotels considering the growth of demand in future.
“There will be a massive change in Chittagong and it will be a major hub for businesses in future,” she said, citing possible construction of a deep-sea port in Sonadia and linking of Bangladesh with the Asian Highway through Chittagong Division.
-With The Daily Star input
