~story by Mikey Leung~

A number of people have e-mailed us noting the recent news that a Lonely Planet author admitted to not even travelling to some of the destinations he wrote about, to which Lonely Planet has already written a factually-based retort on its website.

The offending author, Thomas Kohnstamm, claims that he didn’t get paid enough, and actually, it is true that very few people in the industry make enough to make a living. Considering he’s just published a book called “Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?” it makes sense for him to pull a kind of publicity stunt in order to drive sales of that book, considering that under Lonely Planet’s system, he won’t be collecting royalties on those book sales.

For our end of things at the Joybangla.Info, we can tell you that fact-checking and reviewing places is a utterly painstaking process. We are also accountable to you, our readers, because we will get paid when you purchase our book via royalties. My name will be attached to the work and, right on its cover. Therefore, I want it to be top notch. It’s not worth doing it otherwise!!

Tags: Bangladesh,Controversy,Lonely Planet,Thomas Kohnstamm
Categories: Editorials
2 Comments »

Homaira and Taimur of Dhaka’s Urban Study Group have started offering guided explorations of Old Dhaka, on both the weekends and weekdays, in an effort to see some of the older buildings preserved and restored. Here’s a quote from their recent mailings regarding the preservation work they’re attempting to do:

While our documentation of the other mohallahs of Ward 72 are going on, we have started documenting the Sutrapur and Farashganj area also . At present we are trying to start actual restoration work on few small-scale projects in Shakhari Bazaar and Tati Bazaar which we hope will have a snowball effect; we’ll soon send out detailed information on the projects.

Today’s update is about another heritage building at risk. A grand mansion is being demolished in Farashganj for redevelopment by the owners. USG has already documented the building and trying to negotiate with the owners with conservation proposal with the half that is still standing and is also trying to persuade the goverment officials regarding the possible modification of the current building construction rules to facilitate conservation while protecting the economic interest of the owners/developers.

Want to find out more information? Send an e-mail to friendsofsb [AT] gmail.com.

Tags: Bangladesh,History,Old Dhaka,Shankharia Bazaar,Tours
Categories: Destinations
1 Comment »

~story by Mikey Leung~

With three new airlines starting up in just the last year, the flight prices in Bangladesh should start falling from the sky like manna from heaven.

The newest airlines are:

• Best Air (aka Best Aviation)
• United Airways Bangladesh
• Royal Bengal Airlines

In our opinion, United Airways is the one to watch—they are coming with the newest routes and services, and also have the most steeply discounted fares at the current time. United Airways and Best Air have recently been given approval to begin international operations—competition really means the consumers will benefit, especially in a market that has yet to be tapped.

The country’s other operators, GMG Airlines and Biman Bangladesh, have been around for awhile, and have had no incentive to make their operations more efficient, until now. The government announced it would sell 49 percent of its stake in Biman, a move which has raised some questions among analysts.

From the consumer point of view, everybody in Bangladesh knows that flight prices are rather obscene if you want to get out of the country—tickets to BKK are well over $400 USD and even China Eastern charges $450 for a round trip to Kunming. Flights to Delhi are almost $500 USD. Competition needs to change this market, and it appears we are on the verge of that now. Exciting times to be involved in the Bangladesh tourism industry…

Tags: Airlines,Bangladesh,Competition,Flights,Prices
Categories: Travel, Uncategorized
No Comments »