Govt to ease on-arrival visa system

The government has planned to further ease the visa system for tourists and activate visa on arrival effectively at land and sea ports to give them easier access to Bangladesh and thus boost the tourism sector, officials said.

To attract more tourists and ensure their hassle-free arrival here, the government has decided to provide visa on arrival to foreign nationals, including those of Bangladesh origin.

Immigration officials at the port of entry are supposed to approve this after examining the relevant documents.

Chief Executive Officer of Bangladesh Tourism Board Nikhil Ranjan Roy said they were in discussions with the home and foreign ministries to ease the visa system.

He said the home ministry was also positive about easing the visa process.

Taufiq Rahman, director of Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh, said foreigners get visas on arrival only at airports, but not at land ports.

He said immigration officers at the land ports were not well aware of visa on arrival and that needs to be addressed to give a boost to the tourism industry.

The tour operator suggested introducing visa on arrival at sea ports as cruise ships can get extended tour of Bangladesh by availing the facility.

A cruise ship is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages.

A government official said the visa regime of Bangladesh is quite a tourist-friendly one and the country's missions abroad always grant visas to tourists at the shortest possible time.

He, however, said it might attract more tourists if the visa-on-arrival process could be eased further.

Talking to UNB, a diplomat said, “We've offered the privilege of on arrival visa to a number of countries. We don't know its impact on our tourism sector and it is high time that we should find that out. It would help us take appropriate measures accordingly.”

Tour operators suggest conducting massive campaigns on positive Bangladesh in tourist-generating markets with the help of the country's missions abroad and ensuring better coordination among ministries concerned to attract more tourists.

Although the government has set a target of attracting one million tourists a year, data shows some 620,000 foreign tourists visited Bangladesh in 2016.

Bangladesh earned $163.21 million from the tourism sector in 2016, up from $145.74 million in 2015.