Amusement parks desperate to welcome visitors again
With amusement parks across the world slowly starting to reopen while keeping social distancing guidelines and other restriction in place to prevent mass coronavirus infections, it remains unknown when similar establishments in Bangladesh will resume operations.
The owners of amusement parks in the country have struggled for the last three-and-a-half-months to bear the exorbitant maintenance expenses, pay salaries and instalments on bank loans as income dropped to zero when the government recently enforced nationwide shutdown in March in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus.
While the authorities have allowed small-scale stores and shopping centres to reopen in May and transport services to ply from June 1, the amusement parks have yet to receive the greenlight.
Hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, transport and airlines have been reopened, said Anup Kumar Sarkar, executive director of the Concord Group of Companies, whose concern Concord Entertainment, operates Fantasy Kingdom and Foy's Lake.
Concord owns Fantasy while Foy's lake, which is owned by Bangladesh Railway, was leased on a 50-year contract.
"Although the tourism industry and amusement parks have suffered irreparable damage, so far, no specific direction has been found when it comes to opening the parks," he said.
Established in 2001, Fantasy Kingdom, located in Ashulia, provides a range of fun activities, including a separate water park named Water Kingdom and private retreats at Motel Atlantis.
More than 300 people are employed by the park.
"We haven't laid off any workers so far. But if we cannot reopen, we will have no other option," Sarkar said.
The park, which hosted more than 2,000 visitors daily on average in the past, has been losing an estimated Tk 10 lakh each day from the lack of ticket and food sales since March 20 when the park was closed due to coronavirus outbreak.
Located at the heart of Chattogram, the Foy's Lake complex in Pahartoli has an area of 336 acres, complete with an amusement park and water park with a picturesque view surrounded by hills, a lake and forests. It also has a resort of 38 rooms and 11 bungalows.
About 1,000 people visit the famous lake each day.
"If you do not switch on these machines and rides, these get damaged," Sarkar said, adding that they still have to pay the electric bills and other overheads.
Tourism and amusement destinations under the Bangladesh Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (BAAPA) have already developed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to reopen the parks.
Under the guidelines, authorities will allow only healthy people to enter their facilities and encourage the use of masks or face coverings for guests and staff, provide a means to wash or sanitise hands frequently and manage crowd density to keep people 3 feet apart from each other.
The parks are also planning to reduce touch areas where possible and frequently sanitise high-touch surfaces like railings, protect employees with various approaches, including barriers, protective coverings and distancing and proper treatment facilities on site.
"We are ready with all safety measures. If the authorities advise us against particular rides for risk of infection, we will not open those rides," said Tushar Bin Yousuf, chief executive officer of Nandan Park.
Launched in 2013, the popular park has been closed since March 20 and currently employs about 250 people.
On a normal day before the coronavirus outbreak, the park hosts upwards of 2,000 visitors with an average invoice value of more than Tk 500 per person.
The main income of the amusement parks comes from visitors during the two Eid festivities, according to Yousuf.
"We have already lost one Eid. If we cannot host visitors for the upcoming Eid, we will be devastated," he added.
For five days around Eid, about 25,000 people visit the park.
"With the income made during the two festivals, we can meet operational expenses for a whole year," he said.
Dinajpur's Shopnopuri, one of the oldest private-sector amusement parks in Bangladesh, has been struggling to pay the salaries of its 35 staff members since late March.
"It's a very difficult time for us," said Md Delwar Hossain, the park's managing director.
To create a modern entertainment and tourism park, more than Tk 100 crore needs to be spent, according to industry insiders. Such complexes are typically set up with bank loans.
"Although we are out of income, we have to pay banks loan instalments every month," said Prabir Kumar Shaha, managing director of the Dream Holiday Park in Narsingdi.
The park was opened in 2012 and currently employs about 300 people with a daily footfall of 1,000. Although the owners have not laid off any of staff members yet, they have been paying 50 per cent of their salaries with full festival bonuses for the last three months.
"The district administration can supervise us while allowing us to operate our parks. Other than our losses, the government is also losing a huge amount of revenue from the parks," Shaha said, adding that they also provide a good amount of tax to the local administration.
The park pays Tk 10-15 lakh in value-added tax each month.
The government also charges 7.5 per cent VAT on ticket sales and 15 per cent VAT on food.
On May 10, the BAAPA had written to the state minister of civil aviation and tourism to allow parks to resume operations.
They also previously wrote to the finance minister to allocate funds for the sector in the budget for fiscal 2020-21.
The association said they have yet to receive any directive from the government in this regard despite all sorts of requests.
"When we sought permission from the district administration, they said they could not do anything without consent from the concerned ministries," said an executive of an amusement park.
However, Md Mohibul Haque, senior secretary of the civil aviation and tourism ministry, told The Daily Star that the ministry sent a letter to the deputy commissioner's office asking it to allow the amusement park in Savar to open their doors if the situation is deemed to be under control.
"We didn't close these parks. However, for the request of the park operators, we sent a letter to Dhaka district authority today (yesterday) as we got requests from only the authority of this district," Haque said.
Until 5 pm yesterday, the Dhaka district administration had yet to receive a response from the ministry, according to Md Shahidul Islam, deputy commissioner of Dhaka district.
More than 20,000 people are employed by the 100-odd privately-owned amusement parks in Bangladesh.
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