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| SARS fear hits Bangladesh tourism |
| CCTV.COM 2003-05-04 13:05:04 |
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Bangladesh's tiny tourism industry suffers a further setback following the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome （SARS） in some Southeast Asian countries, reported the Independent on Sunday.
Tourist arrivals in the capital Dhaka dropped heavily as most of them usually come from Bangkok and Hong Kong, which were hit by SARS now.
The country's private tour operators were quoted as saying that the earlier contracted tourists postponed their plans following SARS outbreak, while there was no new contract in the last several weeks. The very few tourists who are coming to Dhaka nowadays had repeated queries about whether Bangladesh is affected by the SARS virus before traveling.
The Twin Tower incident followed by the war on Afghanistan had heavily damaged the country's tiny but prospective tourism industry. Then came the Iraqi war with more impacts.
Apart from decrease in arrivals of foreign tourists, Dhaka－based foreigners also stopped going out following the Iraqi war. Dhaka－based foreigners working for embassies, donor agencies and non－governmental organizations are major tourists to visit the country's key points of interest such as hill tracts and Cox's Bazaar. Since Iraqi war, however, they stopped even leaving their houses.
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Editor: Zhong Source:Xinhua
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