The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

Bangladesh is a land of nature. The country has a great potential for becoming a favourite destination of overseas tourists. The country is blessed with the largest mangrove forest Sundarbans, beautiful hills in Rangamati, exotic tea gardens in Sylhet and the centuries old mansions and villas belonging to the Maharajas of the past civilisations.

The livelihood of the indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts including Bandarban is an added attraction. But the country's tourism sector needs attention for its development. The country is being deprived of huge amount of revenue in foreign currency every year due to present poor state of tourism sector.

The country's tourism sector has not yet made enough progress over the years. The reason is the lack of infrastructures.

For promoting the country's tourism sector, a year long cycle tour has been launched in the country for promoting tourism.

The main aim of the tour is to raise awareness in the enormous potentiality of tourism, which can contribute substantially to the entire economy of the country.

Beyond Adventure Club, organiser of the tour under the banner of 'Explore Bangladesh,' started the cycle tour on October 3.

Two senior cyclists of the club Syed Akhteruzzaman and Nazrul Islam are now leading the tour for the next one-year.

Syed Akhteruzzaman, President of Beyond Adventure Club, said, "We want to highlight and promote the prospective tourism spots of Bangladesh and also want to explore new angles of already renowned tourist attractions."

He said he plans to organise a photography exhibition, publish a book and print postcards after completing the cycle tour.

This year long cycle tour is divided into six different phases in six different routes of the country. The tour, which has already been started, is considered as a pilot tour before starting the main tour, he said.

During this time both the cyclists will cover Mymensingh, Netrokona, Sherpur, Jamalpur, Kishoregonj, Gajni, Birishiri and other prominent areas of this region.