Desk Report: The tourist guides as well as drivers can play an important role in boosting up tourism industry in the hilly region by untilising their skills that they acquired from training about how to deal with the tourists.

Md. Aminul Hoque, inspector of tourist police in Bandarban zone, said this while addressing a conclusion programme of a three-day training for local tourist guides and drivers as the chief guest.

The training titled as “Tourism, First Aid and ICT” was jointly organised by Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB), UNDP-Accelerator Lab and Tour Operator Association of Cox’s Bazar held at the hall room of Hotel Hilton in the hill town of Bandarban recently.

In the training, tourist guides and drivers were asked to have adequate and clear idea about the locations of different tourist spots and make them (tourists) understand about the tradition, culture and customs of local people.

Inspector Aminul urged the drivers to shun the attitude of competitiveness while driving tourists-carrying vehicles in the hilly serpentine roads to avoid accident. Good and friendly behaviour with the tourists by the guides and drivers is also important as they (tourists) could get encourage to visit the hilly areas again and agian, said Aminul.

He also urged the tourist guides and drivers to appraise tourists about the governments’ instructions and if necessary, they can take help from tourist police, and give importance and respect to the culture and values of the local ethnic people.

Touhidul Islam Toha, managing director and CEO of Millennium Tour and Travels, urged the guides and drivers to utilise their skills that they acquired from training in their working filed.

Expressing hope, Toha said the two districts—Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar will be the most attractive tourist destinations for the tourists in the days to come as the two districts have enormous panoramic beauty of evergreen hills, sea beach, waterfalls and islands.

While expressing his opinion, programme coordinator Tareque Tahmid said that tourist guides and drivers must apply their knowledge that they gathered from the training in their working fields. By using ICT and providing necessary training to the tour guides on first aid, the tourism industry can be expanded in Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar.

He assured that training programme will be continued for the professionals in the tourism sector for the interest of expansion of tourism industry.

A total of 30 tour operators and drivers took part in the three-day training programme and they received certificates.