Bengal Tours MD bags Bangladesh Tourism Award 2026

Md Masud Hossain, managing director of Bengal Tours Ltd, has received the Bangladesh Tourism Award 2026 for his contributions to inbound tourism, earning recognition as the Best Inbound Tour Operator of the year.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister M. Rashiduzzaman Millat presented the award at a ceremony held on October 3 at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the capital.

The Bangladesh Tourism Board introduced the awards for the first time to recognise contributions to the development of the tourism sector, service quality, innovation and sustainability.

Hossain’s company has specialised in the Japanese market for more than two decades. Hossain said, ‘I started working with the Japan market from 1990-91, and Bengal Tours started working from 1999. Japan has always been our main market.’

He claimed that about 70-75 percent of Bengal Tours’ inbound customers are currently Japanese. In 2025-26, the company handled around 700 Japanese travellers. However, in 2012-13, before political instability, the 2016 Holey Artisan attack and the Covid-19 pandemic, the number was more than 7,000 a year.

The 2026 awards recognise individuals, businesses and organisations across tourism-related fields, including hotels, tour operators, entrepreneurs, tour guides, tourism content creation and MICE initiatives.