Community tourism thrives

Thursday, February 3, 2022

All through the year, the hilly district of Bandarban, Bangaladesh, remains crowded with tourists except monsoons. Now, tourists like to travel to the lesser known places where the indigenous people live rather artificially made tourism centre in some city.

The Darjeeling Para in Ruma upazila of Bandarban, where the Bom community reside, has grabbed popularity among tourists as food and lodging are quite low.

On elevated platforms, the community members have raised bamboo and wooden cottages and houses for tourists who can get familiar with the local culture as well as traditions by staying close to the locals.

A member of a 15-person tourist group of four families from Dhaka, named Shafiqul Islam, explained that they came to Bandarban for the first time and they were staying in a remote place like Keokradong hill.

“Most of the tourists know and visit familiar places only. But the feeling of staying in the hills is different,” Shafiqul said.
He, however, noted that even though the price of food and accommodation are reasonable in the cottage, quality improvement will help them to attract more tourists.

Another member of the same group Farzana Islam told The Business Standard that they’ve visited this place to relish the natural beauty. Children are getting familiar with many new things in the hills. However, it was risky to come to these far-flung places with young children, she noted.

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