The president of the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh Mohammad Rafeuzzaman on Sunday warned that they would go on a greater movement to save the industries if stopped tourists visiting and staying overnight in St Martins Island.
He said this at a press conference, organised by the St Martins Island Environment and Tourism Protection and Development Alliance at the Economic Reporters Forum in Dhaka.
鈥楧espite our strong objections, the government has decided to limit overnight stays and tourist travel in St Martins. According to the government, no tourist can spend the night in the island in November. In December and January, just 2,000 tourists can travel to St Martins and spend the night,鈥� Rafeuzzaman said.
鈥業n February, the government will stop tourist travel to St Martins. The tourism industry will be greatly affected and the sector entrepreneurs will be destroyed following stopping such seasonal business,鈥� he pointed out.
The press conference noted that about 10,000 people lived in St Martins. All of them depended on tourism. They would be out of a job if tourism was restricted or stopped there. Along with that, financial investment of entrepreneurs would be at serious risk.
SIETPDA chairman Shiblul Azam Qureshi urged the government to maintain the balance of St Martins鈥� environment by strictly stopping the use of single-use plastics and continuing tourism without any restrictions, including overnight stays.
He also demanded an alternative route to travel from Teknaf to St Martins.
The use of generators should be stopped on the island and environment-friendly solar plants should be installed and permanent structures should be controlled using bricks, sand, cement and rods, he pointed out.
Local leaders of St Martins including HR group chairman and alliance publicity secretary Habibur Rahman and E-Tourism Association of Bangladesh president Imranul Alam, among others, spoke at the event.