In Tourism Year, posh Dhaka hotels in a bad patch after cafe carnage

Hotels in Dhaka’s upmarket areas have been experiencing a slump in business even as a  Tourism Year goes on. Thousands of foreigners have cancelled bookings after the recent attack on a Gulshan café.

Obaidur Masumbdnews24.com
Published : 13 August 2016, 05:58 PM
Updated : 13 August 2016, 06:14 PM

Many local and international organisations cancelled their scheduled programmes at hotels and conference centres after the carnage on the first day of July.

People related to Bangladesh’s top exporters, the readymade garment sector, say foreign buyers now want to have negotiations with them in other countries.

Around 10,000 foreigners cancelled tours to Bangladesh in the one and a half months or so since the attack, according to Tour Operators’ Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) President Toufiq Uddin Ahmed.

“The guests stay in hotels during the tours. We are facing great losses after they have cancelled their tours,” he told bdnews24.com.

He sees no way other than launching a campaign to regain the trust of foreigners.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the services sector contributed 56.35 percent of the total GDP in the 2014-15 fiscal year, while the contribution of hotel and restaurants was a little over 1 percent.

With the rise in the contributions of the two sectors, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared 2016 as Tourism Year as a way of taking the sectors further ahead.

But the attack in Gulshan came as a huge blow to the hospitality sector.

Seventeen of the 20 hostages killed during the cafe siege were foreigners.

Several countries, including the US, the UK, and Australia, raised the alarm for their citizens travelling to and in Bangladesh. Three international conferences scheduled to have been held in Dhaka between July and September have also been shifted.

According to the Hotel, Guesthouse and Restaurant Owners’ Association, there are 60 hotels and guesthouses in Dhaka’s upmarket areas of Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara and Uttara.

Baton Rouge restaurant in Gulshan was very busy with programmes of local and international organisations.

The scenario at the restaurant with a capacity to accommodate 500 guests has changed after the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen.

Its Manager Kamrul Hasan said no scheduled programme was held in the restaurant after the cafe attack.

“I have been here for 10 years. There had been many programmes between the Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha. But the picture is just the opposite this time. There was no programme in July. Only two parties were organised in the first week of August,” he said.

He could not estimate the exact financial loss as a result of the attack, but said, “The number of programmes has come down to one-fourth.”  

The cafe attack has caused a change in the scenario of the peak season between the two Eids, Lakeshore Hotel’s Deputy General Manager Md Sharif Molla said.

He said over 80 percent of the 60 rooms in the hotel had usually been occupied by foreigners working in multinational companies, donor agencies and Bangladeshi projects. But the picture has undergone a drastic change.

The number of occupied rooms dropped to 30 percent after the attack and a number of reservations were cancelled after the July 1 incident, Molla said.

He said two conferences scheduled for Aug 12 and 13 had been cancelled.

A number of programmes by banks, donor agencies and corporate offices, and several wedding parties slated to be held before the Eid were also cancelled.

Golden Tulip The Grandmark hotel in Banani is also going through a slump in business, Managing Director Khaledur Rahman Sunny says.

“Our hotel’s occupancy was 70 percent before the Gulshan attack. We had 50 bookings for August. The clients have cancelled 30,” he said.

Twelve hundred rooms in the big hotels in Dhaka had been reserved for two international conferences, on money laundering and telecommunications, to be held at Regency Hotel after Eid.

The conferences, along with a programme of the US embassy, have been cancelled.

Spectra Convention Centre has suffered nine cancellations.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Vice-President Mohammad Nasir said the foreign buyers had been requesting meetings in other countries since the attack.

“Many are going (abroad to meet buyers). Meanwhile many of the retailers who have office here are coming, working,” he said.