The week-long beach carnival began at Labani Point on the beach with auspicious floats and balloon bursts.
The district administration organized this fair to attract tourists in various ways on the occasion of World Tourism Day.
Sand sculptures of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have been placed on the beach. There were beach bike rally, circus, discussions and cultural events. Around the World Tourism Day and Tourism Fair, there is a huge crowd of tourists on the beach. Tourists have complained that discounts are not being given in hotels, motels and restaurants.
Wednesday was World Tourism Day. During this time, the Cox's Bazar district administration organizes a week-long beach carnival at Labni Point on the Cox's Bazar beach to attract local and foreign tourists. The rally started from Sugandha point on the beach at 9:30 am. After arriving at Labani Point on the beach, the guests launched the week-long beach carnival by blowing up balloons. Then the discussion started. Deputy Commissioner Md. Shahin Imran presided over the inauguration ceremony and as the chief guest was SaimumSarwar Kamal, Member of Parliament of Cox's Bazar-03 Constituency. Also Bangladesh Awami League religious affairs editor Sirajul Mostafa, Member of Parliament AshekUllahRafiq, Zafar Alam, KanizFatemaMostak, Superintendent of Police Mahfuzul Islam, SP of Tourist Police Zillur Rahman, President of Cox's Bazar Press Club Abu Taher, Municipal Mayor Mahbubur Rahman Chowdhury and others were present.
Organizers said that this initiative has been taken to publicise Cox's Bazar globally and expand the tourism industry on the occasion of World Tourism Day. The tourism fair and beach carnival will continue from Wednesday to October 3.
Cox's Bazar city is colorfully decorated around the tourist fair and beach carnival. Hotel-motel, restaurant and tourism related businesses have made various preparations to welcome tourists. A fair stage and more than two hundred stalls have been constructed for tourism fairs and beach carnivals. It has been announced to give 'special discount' to all establishments involved in tourism business, starting from hotels and motels to food restaurants, Kitkats. However, some tourists have complained of not getting the Sir announced at the hotel. Rafiqul Islam, a tourist from Dhaka, said that after coming to Cox's Bazar on hearing about television discounts, there is no discount here.MohammadYamin Hossain, convener of the tourism fair and additional district magistrate of Cox's Bazar, said that there are various types of stalls in the fair, various types of products and various types of tourism services are displayed in these stalls in the tourism camp.
Deputy Commissioner Shaheen Imran inaugurated the fine sculptures of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Labani Point on the beach yesterday evening. At this time he did a rally with a beach bike.
Ishtiaq Ahmed Joy, former district Chhatra League president and current central Jubo League leader, who built sand sculptures with art students of Dhaka University, said that this event is to inform the next generation about Bangabandhu, Bengali's independence and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Cox's Bazar Additional District Magistrate Mohammad Yamin Hossain saidDaily Circus Show, Beach Bike Rally, Cultural Show, DJ Show, Fireworks, Road Show, Seminar, Kite Festival, Magic Show, Fire Spin, Life Guard Rescue Show, Lantern Festival, Surfing Show, Beach Marathon, Beach Volleyball, Prize Distribution and there will be a closing ceremony and concert.
Local artistes as well as artists from different regions are coming to entertain the tourists and visitors in this fair. Among them are regional language artists from KushtiaLalon Academy and Sylhet. Apart from this, artists from Sunamganj will perform various songs in regional languages including Hasan Raja's songs.
Mahuapala from Mymensingh, Bhaoiya singers from Kurigram will also come. Groups of small ethnic groups will come from Bandarban and Khagrachari. Apart from famous regional singer PremSundar from Chittagong, national level artists will also come. Liza, Oishi, TanjirTuhin, Ravi Chowdhury, NishitaBarua and many other national artists will sing on the stage each day.
On the other hand, Miladunnabi falls on the holy Eid on Thursday. Friday and Saturday are weekends.
Those concerned said that lakhs of tourists will gather in Cox's Bazar during the three-day holiday.
Superintendent of Police of Tourist Police Cox's Bazar region Zillur Rahman said that there will be a large number of tourists in Cox's Bazar during the tourism fair and beach carnival and the three-day holiday.
Additional security measures have been taken for the overall safety of tourists.
Deputy Commissioner of Cox's Bazar Muhammad Shaheen Imran said, this fair and beach carnival have been organized to highlight Cox's Bazar, the main tourist center of the country, to local and foreign tourists. Color will be spread globally during this seven-day event full of varieties.
