C T Online Desk: Thousands of tourists visit Sylhet every year during the Eid holidays, making the tourist centers there buzzing with activities. Travellers usually had to book rooms in advance for their stays in Sylhet because rooms became very scarce during that period.
However, the situation was very different during the Eid holidays this year as the administration issued a ban on the entry of tourists to Sylhet since the day of Eid-ul-Azha as a severe flood hit the area at dawn on that day.
The hotels, motels, and resorts of Sylhet have been lying empty due to lack of tourists. Even on a big occasion like Eid, the entrepreneurs of this sector are facing a huge loss due to lack of tourists.
Considering the damage, some tourist centres have been opened since 23 June (Sunday), but till Friday there were not many visitors. According to the Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industries, the loss of the tourism sector in Sylhet will exceed Tk400 crore.
Mridul Datta Mistu, general manager of Hotel City in Zindabazar area of the city, “We take preparation to deal with extra pressure during Eid every year. New investments are also made at this time. The business is very good during the Eid holidays every year, but the situation is very bad this year. The entire hotel has been empty since Eid. There are no guests.”
Jaflong of Gowainghat upazila is one of the tourist attractions of Sylhet. It is always crowded with tourists, and during Eid, there is no place even to put one’s foot. However, this tourist centre was also declared closed from the day of Eid. It was reopened on Sunday, but the tourist spot was still almost empty since then.
Tourists enter the main tourist center here through cluster villages in the Jaflong area, where hundreds of permanent and temporary businesses have been established.
Visiting the area on Monday, this correspondent found that all the businesses, except for only a few, were closed. Even those that are open had no buyers.
Abdur Rahim, who makes a living by taking tourists’ photos, said, “This Eid season has gone very badly. No tourists are coming. We are almost unemployed due to the lack of tourists.”
Babul Ahmed, the owner of the green resort in this area, said no guests have come to the resort after Eid. Such a situation happened once during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other than that, they never hit such a snag.
Jaflong Tourist Centre Business Association President Hossain Mia said, “Our business depends on tourists. There are about 600 businesses in Jaflong. The owners, employees and their family
