Started inbound tours with Tk2,000; first tour paid $850, now 10–15 guests a month
A Jagannath University student spent Tk2,000 on a Facebook page and website to run tours for foreigners. After repeated cancellations the first guest came in 2019; he now gets 10–15 guests a month with four part-time guides.
In 2018 a Jagannath University student, seeing guides with foreign tourists on campus and at Ahsan Manzil, decided he would do this work too. When CVs sent to companies working with foreign tourists brought no response, he started on his own: he visited popular places in Dhaka and read up on their history, then made a Facebook page, a group and a website and launched a tour company for Tk 2,000. For a long time no response came; bookings by a tourist from India and two from Malaysia were cancelled. Disheartened, he took a job at an e-commerce company and on holidays took domestic tourists to Sajek, Rangamati and St Martin's. On 9 April 2019 a tour guide from Nepal came as his first foreign guest; after taking him around Dhaka, Sonargaon, Rajshahi, Naogaon and Bogura over seven days, he earned $850. The next guest came through that guest. In a 2023 piece he said he now gets 10–15 guests a month, more in the season, and has four part-time guides. He has left his job — his income as a guide is several times his former salary.
Lessons
- 1.The first foreign booking can take a long time; keep another income meanwhile.
- 2.Happy guests bring referrals; give the first tours the most care.
- 3.Part-time guides handle seasonal peaks without fixed salaries.
We published this with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.
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