Shawdesh desk:

Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) has taken initiative to hold separate workshop for 64 districts involving local stakeholders for including tourism in local development plan as well as ensuring participation of all in formulation of ‘Tourism Master Plan’.

Officials including district administration, police super, civil surgeon, public works executive engineer, district council executive
officer, district tourism committee members, upazila chairman, union chairman, upazila nirbahi officer, forest officer will join the
virtual workshops on behalf of their respective districts.

Apart from the government representatives of private sectors including local tour operators, hotel, resort, restaurants and
transport owners, travel agents, teachers and journalists will also join the workshop, a press release said.

In this regard, state minister of civil aviation and tourism M Mahbub Ali said the initiative will play important role in ensuring
participation of all stakeholders in formulating the tourism master plan that has been under preparation with the instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Mentioning that tourism will be a major sector in recovering the economic during post COVID era, Ali said the BTB has plan to inform the stakeholders about the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on how the tourism sector to be operational amid and after the pandemic.

The UNWTO has released a set of guidelines recently to help the tourism sector emerge stronger and more sustainably from the pandemic while WHO released interim operational guidance on COVID-19 management in the accommodation sector.

Earlier, local travel and tourism service providers urged the government to place a specific incentive guideline to support the
country’s entire aviation and leisure industry as the ongoing global standoff due to COVID-19 pandemic sent the sector into tailspin.