Sunderbans-Cox's Bazar-St Martin's Island Enchanting Virgin Tracts

Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, can be experienced in a single cruise trip, extending all the way to St Martin's Island in Cox's Bazar. India and Bangladesh are considering tourism prospects that are expected to take shape very soon.

- Sudipto Roy and June Mukherjee

While the Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) is planning an integrated approach, building a sustainable coastal destination out of Cox's Bazar, this south-eastern tip of Bangladesh with its proximity to Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal on either side has emerged as a destination offering heritage community trails and unseen maritime tourism prospects to international travellers looking to explore lesser known destinations. The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has recently praised the efforts of the government advocating dispersal of tourists to secondary and tertiary destinations. Albeit loads of information available on the Internet, there will only be a few who would know that the world’s longest and arguably the most spectacular natural beach is neither in the Caribbean nor in Australia or even New Zealand. It is the 150-km-long Cox’s Bazar beach, in Bangladesh!

Immersed in infrastructural outlook and with an ardent urge to make Cox’s Bazar more familiar among the quintessential Indian travellers, BTB seems to have figured out the uphill task awaiting them. Discussing the growth opportunities in this fishing port, the CEO of Bangladesh Tourism Board, Akhtaruz Zaman Khan Kabir said, “Bangladesh government is going to establish an exclusive tourist zone with about 1100 acres of land near Cox's Bazar. The zone will be reserved for exclusive foreign tourists. We are very interested in bringing in foreign investors, and that’s why we are inviting international investors to come to Bangladesh and explore the opportunities.” Targeting the European market along with eastern India, the BTB CEO shared responses to their efforts, saying, “We have already received positive feedback from Japan, China and other countries. We will soon look to European countries as well and hence, we are very hopeful of the ball starting to roll soon.”