The cost of travel of the people of the country is eye-catching. In the 2018-19 financial year, the people of Bangladesh have spent 33,066 million rupees on foreign trips. Of this, the preparatory cost before going abroad is Tk 7,494.30 crore.
Tourists from the country who are going abroad are spending the most on healthcare or medical sector, which is 29.49 percent. This is followed by the cost of transporting these passengers, which is 25.28 percent of the total cost of traveling abroad.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has conducted a survey on the data of FY 2018-19 to understand the travel picture of the citizens of Bangladesh as a whole and to identify the contribution of tourism to the GDP. The survey was conducted for the first time under the name ‘Tourism Satellite Account 2020’.
According to survey participants, winter is a good time to travel. With this message, BBS said that 13.61 percent of the travelers of that financial year went abroad in December. 10.6 percent in January and 11.18 percent in April.
Tofail Ahmed, director of the survey project, told Kaler Kanth that the survey, which ended in March 2020, was a full-fledged survey. The survey we conducted in 2012 was a pilot survey, ”he said. As well as meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the sector, the contribution of the tourism sector to GDP is known. At the same time, the survey will help the government to plan for the future of the sector.
Last month, BBS published the results of the survey. The survey was conducted on 39,417 households in the country on the basis of random selection. Of these, 1,018 households or family members have traveled abroad at least once in that financial year. As a percentage, it is 2.96 percent of the total food.
Sanjida Alam Sanji, a tourist, told Kaler Kanth, “I have been to India more than once, mainly to travel and get medical treatment. Medical services are available there at very low cost. ‘In response to another question, he said,’ Shopping is a must, some trips abroad seem incomplete without some shopping. ‘Another tourist named Jannatul Ferdous made a similar statement. He has also gone to India for treatment five-six times so far.
The BBS survey says the same thing. About 80.41 per cent of those surveyed said India was their first choice for travel. 6.12 percent Saudi Arabia and 4.56 percent destination Malaysia.
As many as 48.98 per cent tourists cited travel as a reason to visit their friends. BBS says it is important for those traveling abroad to meet friends and relatives. However, the number of trips abroad for medical treatment is eye-catching, at a rate of 15.6 per cent.
According to the survey, 12.7 percent of tourists go abroad for leisure. The highest number of people traveling abroad by profession is in the healthcare sector, at a rate of 83.95 per cent. 29.25 per cent of the people in the agricultural sector and 8.70 per cent in the industrial sector go abroad.
People of Dhaka division are ahead in foreign travel, it is 25 percent. Then there is Khulna division, 19.84 percent. Mymensingh division is lagging behind at 0.54 percent.
Rajiv Biswas, a resident of Magura, holds a master’s degree from Visva-Bharati University. The company is based in Bolpur, Birbhum, West Bengal. Due to this he had to travel to India for a long time. Elaborating on his travel experience, he said, “I used to travel to West Bengal by bus via Benapole to reduce the cost. Some travel by air. This number is not high. The number of passengers traveling by bus is more.
The Tourism Satellite Account 2020 survey says the same thing. 47.01 percent of the people surveyed are traveling abroad by bus. 16.45 percent people have chosen rail for travel. And 11.22 percent people have traveled by air.
Syed Rashidul Hasan, a former professor in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality at Dhaka University, told Kaler Kanth that according to the survey, travelers are spending around Tk 10,000 crore on healthcare. This money can be easily kept in the country by improving the medical sector of the country. “We did a large-scale survey a few days ago,” he said. It has been seen that there is a lack of trained manpower in the tourism sector of Bangladesh. At present 2.3 million people of the country are directly and indirectly involved in the tourism sector. By 2030, the demand for manpower in this sector will be 42 lakhs. This means that tourism in our country is increasing. With this information in mind, we need to work with the tourism sector. Otherwise, the number of tourists going abroad will increase.
