Beaches reopen amid corona fear  

Nearly a month after reopening the Kuakata beach in Patuakhali district, two more beaches were declared open last week. Those are located in Cox's Bazar district and Patenga in Chittagong city. There are a few newly discovered makeshift beaches in the greater Cox's Bazar. Presumably, the local domestic tourists have also resumed visiting these obscure beaches. Although the print media photographs and TV footage show a small number of people on the seashores in Cox's Bazar and Patenga, more tourists are expected to join them in the coming weeks. However, the fears of contracting COVID-19 may not witness the return of the jovial and frolicking people in droves. Various kinds of normal tourist bustles may, thus, remain missing on the beaches for now. Yet there are also possibilities of a different spectacle centred on the venue. Upon being confined to home and their respective localities for months, a frenzied rush of people to the beaches is expected to occur in all likelihood.

To the practical people, chances are little, though. According to the intending beach-goers, the yet-to-be-fully-normal communication network across the country might discourage many tourists from visiting these popular tourist sites. As they predict, it is the people living in the greater Chittagong and Cox's Bazar who might keep the beaches vibrant. The extended monsoon is not an ideal time to visit the beaches. Yet, a lot of thrill-seeking and unconventional young tourists come to the beaches during this time every year. Due to the corona panic, their arrival at the beaches is also shrouded in uncertainty. But they may not feel panicked. There are many who might turn desperate to rush for the beaches. They are madly in love with the rain-swept beauty of the sea and the sandy coastal area.

A few segments of tourists also come to the beaches during the rains. A chief reason for choosing this generally viewed adverse season is the hotel and motel charges. They normally remain lower than that fixed during the winter, the peak tourist season in this hot and humid country. The scene is opposite in many overseas countries, dominated by a long wintry season. The bright sunny days constitute the most sought-after time there. It is the best period of a year for people, especially women, to get their pale white skin tanned. In Bangladesh, the offers of reductions in hotel charges may not draw enough tourists in the near future. But incredibly tempting concessions will be there, because the tour operators and hotel-motel owners had to incur huge losses due to the months-long COVID-19 shutdown after the outbreak of the pandemic.

Still, a number of beach lovers are expected to visit the seaside sandy tracks. The Cox's Bazar beach is the world's longest unbroken beach. Even two decades back, it used to watch isolated groups of amazed foreigners roaming about the coastal stretches. What attracted them most was the local people's hospitality extended towards them. They would find the beaches normally free of commercial allurements which at times emerged as annoying nuisance to them. These disturbances tarnished the image of many popular beaches in South and Southeast Asia.

The country's beaches have long become used to passing the winters without the presence of foreign tourists. In their place it is the local sea-lovers who swarm on the beaches. The reopening of the Cox's Bazar beach is expected to cause a great stir among the compulsive tourists. But the corona spectre might also keep sapping their usual fervour. Tour experts, thus, lay emphasis on assigning health volunteers to strictly enforce corona-prevention measures on the beaches.

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