Tourists pour into Sylhet over the long holiday: some shelter at a shrine after failing to find hotel rooms, traders eye Tk 100 crore in business
Tourists have poured into Sylhet around the Durga Puja festival and the long holiday. Tourist spots in Sylhet and the surrounding area are bustling with visitors from across the country. But an accommodation crunch has left hundreds of tourists who could not find hotel rooms in difficulty, and some have taken shelter in the courtyard of the shrine of Hazrat Shah Jalal (RA).
Crowds are overflowing at Sadapathar in Bholaganj, Jaflong, Ratargul, Bichanakandi, Lalakhal and the tea gardens. The extra presence of tourists has increased activity in hotels, motels, resorts, restaurants and transport, and tourism traders see the prospect of business worth hundreds of crores of taka.
This year the Durga Puja holiday list had five days. With the weekly Friday and Saturday holidays before and after added, students got a further four days. With Lakshmi Puja on Sunday 25 October added as well, the calendar produced a stretch of ten consecutive days of holiday, creating extra demand in Sylhet's tourism sector.
At Sadapathar in Bholaganj on the holiday, visitors were seen crowding the banks of the Dholai river. Some stood on the large stones taking photographs, others spent time in the clear stream. The Panthumai waterfall, Utmachhara and the green tea gardens are also drawing tourists.
Tourist numbers have also risen at spots in Moulvibazar, not just Sylhet. Visitors are crowding the winding tea-garden paths, the deep forest of Lawachara, Madhabpur Lake and the Madhabkunda waterfall. Resorts in Sreemangal, known as the tea capital, have also seen extra pressure from tourists, and transport, food shops and local service businesses have picked up pace.
With advance bookings in place, rooms cannot be found at many hotels and motels. Where rooms are available, there are complaints of excessive charges. Travellers have also complained of extra fares being charged for CNG auto-rickshaws and microbuses to the tourist spots.
Ashraful Alam, who came from Narayanganj with his family, said he visited Sylhet's tea gardens, Jaflong, Ratargul and Sadapathar to enjoy the long holiday. Though charmed by the natural beauty, he is unhappy about the extra cost of accommodation and travel. 'This time I had to pay almost double the hotel rent. Perhaps this would not have happened if I had booked in advance. Besides, CNG fares around the shrine are high, and the drivers' behaviour is not good either. Everything else is fine,' he said.
Alauddin Bepari, who came from Old Dhaka, said he searched various hotels but found no room, and where rooms were available, excessive rent was demanded. He alleged that a kind of syndicate influence exists in CNG auto-rickshaw fares and that double fares are being demanded by taking advantage of tourists' helplessness. Several students of a private university also said drivers are asking several times the normal fare from Ambarkhana, Zindabazar and Bondorbazar to the tourist spots.
Sheikh Faruk Hasan, a tourist from Gazipur, ended up having to spend the night in the shrine courtyard after failing to find a hotel room. He said he never imagined facing such an accommodation crisis; finding no hotel anywhere, he had to spend the night at the shrine. If he still gets no room the next day, he is thinking of returning to Gazipur.
The tourists' suffering is not limited to accommodation and fares. With six-lane upgrading work under way on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway, long tailbacks are forming at various points, and passengers say the poor state of the road means a six-hour journey often takes ten to twelve hours. Most of the roughly 55-kilometre road to Jaflong has large potholes; the roughly 25 kilometres of road to Bichanakandi is also in poor condition, and reaching Lalakhal's main tourist spot requires crossing a mud road after Sarighat.
Tourism traders say they expect at least one million tourists over the ten-day holiday. Sheikh Ramim Ahmad, chief executive officer (CEO) of Bholaganj Sadapathar Hotel and Resort, said all of their rooms are booked until 25 October; business was slow during the last two Eids, but tourist numbers have risen during the Puja holiday and restaurant sales have increased too. He said business is better this year than during the Eid and Puja holidays of the past few years.
Business leader and former FBCCI director Falah Uddin Ali Ahmad said: 'Alongside extra profit from the arrival of tourists, Sylhet's economy has become more vibrant. In the ten consecutive days of government holiday including Puja, there is a possibility of at least Tk 100 crore of business in Sylhet's tourism sector.' Ejaz Ahmed Chowdhury, administrator of the Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said business was good this Puja and security arrangements were also good; tourists could move around Sylhet without hindrance and no complaints were received about this.
The Tourist Police are on alert to ensure tourists' safety. Md Shahinur Islam, additional superintendent of police for the Sylhet region of the Tourist Police, said police members are on duty at every spot to maintain an environment for undisturbed travel. Sylhet deputy commissioner Abdullah Al Mamun said security arrangements have been ensured at the tourist spots in coordination with the upazila administrations and necessary steps have also been taken to reduce traffic jams; if complaints of excess fare collection are received, strict action will be taken against those responsible after verification.
