Foy’s Lake returns to pre-pandemic level after lacklustre year
Shahenoor Akther Urmi || BusinessInsider
An amusement park at Foy’s Lake. Photo collected
Accommodation facilities at the Foy’s Lake Complex in Chattogram have achieved a 100% occupancy rate after almost a year as domestic tourism has started to bounce back.
All the 36 rooms and 11 bungalows in the park were booked from Friday through Sunday, and the complex authorities now expect that the flow of holidaymakers will return to pre-pandemic level following the recent surge.
To stay at the bungalows, visitors need to pay from Tk7,000-Tk10,000 per night, while staying at the rooms cost Tk5,000-Tk10,000 per night.
“We have begun catering to around 800 to 1,200 visitors per day from Friday,” Bishwajit Ghosh, deputy marketing manager of the complex’s operator Concord Entertainment, told the Business Insider Bangladesh on Saturday.
Like other areas in the country, tourist spots in the port city reopened in August last, after a five-month hiatus due to Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, Foy’s Lake would have about 1,000 visitors daily. But during the last few months, visitor turnout at the complex was as low as about 200-300 people per day, according to Ghosh.
Optimistic about the flow of visitors, Ghosh said they could return to regular operations from March.
“The first three Fridays of the month [March] have already been booked for 20 picnics. We home more bookings in the forthcoming days,” he added.
Mohammad Nezam Uddin Bhuyan, secretary of the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB), said that domestic tourism had helped the industry survive the pandemic.
“The government should emphasise transportation and infrastructure development to create a more tourism-friendly environment,” he suggested.
Bhuyan also said that creating awareness and promoting eco-friendly tourism could help further increase the number of domestic tourists in the country.
Located at the heart of Pahartoli, Chattogram, the Foy's Lake Complex covers an area of 336 acres, complete with an amusement park and water park and is surrounded by hills, a lake and forests.
