Bangladesh Founda-tion for Tourism Develop-ment (BFTD) and Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) in collaboration with Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Bangladesh Tourism Board, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of commerce and Industry, Bangladesh Inbound Tour operators Associ-ation and Bangladesh International Hotel Association will organize third Bangladesh Inter-national Tourism Fair (BITF) at the Interna-tional Conference Centre (BICC) in the city from November 28-30, 2013.
The event, the country’s biggest international travel and tourism fair, will be inaugurated by Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Mohammad Faruk Khan MP at 5pm on November 28. There will be a total of 155 stalls.
Participants from the USA, Europe, Middle-east and South Asia will take part in the event.
Participants include travel agents, tour operators, hotels and resorts, card sellers, hospitals, institutions, National Tourism Organi-zation (NTO), airlines, financial institutions, online sellers and other tourism service providers. Mayor of West Sumatra, Indonesia, tourism minister of Tripura, tour operators association leaders from different countries will attend along with buyers from the USA, Canada France, Mexico, Australia.
While talking to the correspondent, Hakim Ali, president of Bangladesh Foundation for Tourism Development (BFTD) said tourism sector can generate 500 million US dollars per year provided the government launched a massive drive to popularize the sector with special fund.
Quoting Bangladesh Bank statistics, Hakim Ali said Bangladesh earned $100m as revenue from tourism sector in last fiscal. Rezaul Karim, Executive Director, BFTD, said, Bangladesh can easily 2.00-3.00 billion US dollars per year by targeting foreign tourists.
He said 100,000 Bangladeshis every year travel Malaysia, 5,00,000 Bangladeshis visit India, 80,000 Bangladeshis Singapore and 70,000 Bangladeshis Thailand spending several billion dollars a year.
-With The News Today input
