Saint Martin's Tourist Ship Services Resume as Eco-Tourism Rules Take Effect

Saint Martin’s Tourist Ship Services Resume as Eco-Tourism Rules Take Effect

Tourist ships will resume their visits to Saint Martin's Island on December 1, following a weeks-long stop. This is because the government has tightened rules to protect the country’s only coral island.  In December and January, guests can stay overnight on the island for the first time this season, but there will be strict environmental rules.

After a special planning meeting on Saturday at the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Cox’s Bazar, work has begun again.  There were top officials from the Tourism Board, the Department of Environment (DoE), the cops, and other groups there.

It was approved for four ships, and three of them started operations.  Sunday

Four ships have been given permission by the district government to work on the Cox’s Bazar–Saint Martin’s path, according to Shahidul Alam, the additional district magistrate for Cox’s Bazar.

Three of them—MV Karnaphuli Express, MV Baro Awlia, and Keari Sindbad—will start taking tourists from the Nuniarchara Jetty at 7 a.m. on Sunday.

The ships will come back from the island at 3 p.m. the next day, so people can only stay overnight in certain places in December and January.  Operators say that tickets will be sold until the last person leaves each morning, but the government has limited the number of tourists that can come each day to 2,000.

The General Secretary of the Sea Cruise Operator Owners Association of Bangladesh, Hossain Islam Bahadur, said, “We will not sell more than 2,000 tickets.”

He also said that the ship’s officials are issuing travel documents to all people who have already booked tickets.

You can only stay the night for two months.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change put out new rules on October 22 that say tourists can only stay overnight in December and January.

In November, visitors were only allowed during the day, and all tourism will stop in February to ease the strain on the island’s fragile environment.

The new rules were made under Section 13 of the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act, 1995. They are in line with the 2023 Eco-Tourism Guidelines, which are meant to protect the environment, shoreline, and wildlife on the island.

Tougher rules: online tickets, QR codes, and limits on plastic

The government has taken several steps to control the number of tourists and protect the environment:

• No ship can go to sea without permission from both BIWTA and the Environment Ministry.
• All tourists must buy tickets online through the Bangladesh Tourism Board’s official website.
• Every ticket needs to have a Travel Pass and a QR code on it; tickets without QR codes won’t work.
• No more than 2,000 people per day; entry will be limited in February.
• Close watch on ships at Nuniarchara Jetty and Saint Martin’s Jetty.
• Fires on the beach at night, loud activities, and grill parties are not allowed.
• You can’t go into keya forests, collect or sell keya fruits, or hurt corals, turtles, birds, king crabs, snails, oysters, or other sea creatures.
• You can’t ride a motorbike, sea bike, or any other motorised car on the beach.
• Single-use plastics and polythene (chip bags, straws, tiny soap/shampoo packs, small bottles) should not be used.
• To encourage people to be more eco-friendly, the Department of Education will hand out free aluminium water bottles at the dock to prevent people from using plastic bottles.

In order to avoid a repeat of past overcrowding, the government

The planning meeting was led by Deputy Commissioner Md Abdul Mannan, who said that all agencies have finished making plans to make sure that tourists have “safe, orderly, and environmentally responsible travel.”

Concerns about uncontrolled tourism on Saint Martin’s have been growing for years. Experts have warned that the island’s coral colonies, wildlife habitats, and coastal greenery are in grave danger from pollution and overcrowding.