Coronavirus forces Bangladeshis to cancel Thailand, Singapore tours

Bangladeshi tourists have stopped going to the South Asian Countries, in particular Thailand and Singapore, in fear of novel coronavirus which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and later spread different countries.

The number of visits by Bangladeshi tourists in the South Asian countries declined to around 70 percent in the beginning of this year than that of the same period of last year, putting bad impact on the air ticketing business.

Tour operators said no flight of each route of South Asia did left Bangladesh being fully packed last a month as the coronavirus fear gripped people.

Many people are cancelling their pre-booked ticket, and only those had booked non-refundable ticket in promotional offers have no option but are going abroad. And the latter number is very few, they said, adding that people are going to the countries in only business purpose or speciall necessity.

About this, Md Shahed Ullah, director (media and publication) of Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB), told Jago News that the number of Bangladeshi nationals' tour to Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia have fallen at alarming rate.

About 87 percent of the people going abroad visited countries in tourist visa, and rest 13 percent in other purposes in 2019, said World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).

The percentage would not be above 30-40 in first couple of weeks of 2020 than that of the same period of last year, said tour operators.

Amazing Tours manager aiful Islam told Jago News that the number of Bangladeshi travelers going overseas widely decreased last a month and a half. "We earlier would book as much as the tour, now don't get its 30 percent too. Besides, no tourist goes to China as visa is not being issued newly due to coronavirus," he added.

He also said the tourists from Bangladesh throughout the year would go to the countries like Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bhutan and Vietnam and among them, the highest number travelers go to Thailand but now they don't do so.

Businesses and tourists from Bangladesh travel to China in whole year but for last four weeks flights from Bangladesh to the country ply with few number of passengers, according to the Bangladeshi Airlines.

Coronavirus has put huge impact on flights of China-Bangladesh route, US-Bangla Airlines general manager (public relations) Md Karul Islam told Jago News.

Business people of Bangladesh generally don't go to China as business establishments there remain shut during the country's Lunar Year in January and February. Now tourists also avoid going there because of coronavirus outbreak, he added.

Meanwhile, the tourists now are not booking tickets for China, Hong Kong and around other Asian countries because of Coronavirus that badly affected air ticketing business, said Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) president Mansur Ahmed Kamal.

On February 5, only a passenger came to Dhaka from Thailand's capital Bangkok through an international Airlines' flight. He, later, told Jago News that just 17 ones were in the flight.

Coronavirus outbreak affected International Tourism Industry. In a recent report, CNN said tourism sector in China fears massive fall as the region or countries' airlines decided to stop flights, and not giving visa to Chinese nationals as part of halting spread of the virus. 

Coronavirus, as of Saturday, claimed 722 lives and sickened nearly 35,000 people.