Board of Investment (BoI) is overwhelmed by proposals from foreign investors to set up five star hotels and tourist centres in Bangladesh, sources said.

As more foreign companies are getting involved in Bangladesh business, the number of visitors is also rising. Besides, flow of tourists from abroad rose up as tour operators, airlines and hoteliers took aggressive business promotions, BoI officials added.

According to sources, every year some 5,000 foreign tourists visit Bangladesh who spend $1,000 each during their visit while around two lakh foreigners come to Bangladesh for business or other purposes. The number of business travellers is eyeing a double digit growth.

As tour operators are now quite organised with many of them having their own hotels, restaurants, ships and buses to provide quality services to the travellers, the travel industry is now growing by around 30 percent a year, according to Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (Toab).

The Tata Group, which initially proposed to invest $2 billion in power, steel and fertiliser sectors, later also expressed interest to expand its Taj Hotel chain in Bangladesh. Following the visit of its Chairman Ratan Tata, the Indian group offered to buy Unique Group's $36 million venture Westin Dhaka, a 25-storey five star hotel at Gulshan, likely to be opened later this year.

"Foreign companies conduct market study to find lucrative areas of business before opening business in a new country. So, it seems that the foreign business groups which have hotel chain in their business have seen huge scope to develop business here," a high BoI official observed.

UAE's Dhabi Group has also responded positively to BoI proposal in setting up a five star hotel and developing tourism facilities in Cox's Bazar. The group, owned by UAE's Al Nahyan royal family, also offered to buy either Sonargaon or Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, the two existing five-star hotels owned by Bangladesh government.

During his visit last month, the Dhabi Group Chief Executive Officer Bashir A Taher proposed to upgrade the Dhaka-Chittagong highway to an expressway and set up a 500MW power plant and provide international telephone call traffic management service. BoI sources said the projects will require $2 billion investment.

Besides, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz expressed his keen interest to set up world-class hotels in Dhaka and Chittagong during his high-profile six-hour visit to Bangladesh last month. According to the prince's talks with Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan, an expert team will visit Bangladesh this month to select sites of the hotels.

The foreign groups appear to have been convinced that it will be worth launching luxury hotel business in Bangladesh as the existing two five-star hotels, which are very close in location, are not enough to cater for increasing foreign visitors, a BoI official said.

Three five-star hotels, being constructed at an estimated cost of $ 400 million, are expected to start operation in Dhaka by the end of 2006.

Of these, Westin Dhaka at Gulshan and Radisson Water Garden at Cantonment Railway Station on Airport Road are likely to be launched within a few months. The other--Intercontinental Dhaka --close to Zia International Airport (ZIA), will be opened by the end of next year.

IPCO Hotels Ltd, a subsidiary of Bengal Group, is the developer and lessee of Intercontinental Dhaka. It is also constructing a three-star hotel -Holiday Inn Dhaka-near ZIA. Another three-star hotel-Lake Shore-at Gulshan has begun its operation early this year.