Hotel Sayeman: Pioneer in beach town tourism
A permanent state-of-the-art “Bangabandhu Corner” will be there in the newly built Sayeman Heritage Building on the old Sayeman Hotel site in Baharchhara Jhautala
The Sayeman Beach Resort, a pre-independence era hotel in Cox's Bazar, is now near the sea and has long been a trusted tourist service for both domestic and foreign tourists.
Most foreign NGO and UN agency staff working in the Rohingya camps, one of the largest refugee camps in the world, feel safe at Sayeman.
Apart from tourism services, the Sayeman authorities are also supporting state ceremonies. In that spirit, the hotel authorities have set up a "Bangabandhu Corner" at the hotel.
Earlier this year, Sayeman's Managing Director Mahbubur Rahman inaugurated a temporary exhibition of the corner in the Sayeman Beach Resort at Kalatali Beach.
Pictures of a candle light dinner in honor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Hotel Sayeman in 1969, and a visit to the beach area at that time, have been showcased in Bangabandhu Corner.
Mahbubur Rahman said, "Hotel Sayeman started with tourism in Cox's Bazar in the sixties. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the time, lauded the initiative of Chattogram businessman, Engineer Mosharraf Hossain."
![Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman enjoys a candlelit dinner with Engineer Mosharraf Hossain in 1969 organised in honour of the father of the nation at Hotel Sayeman. Photo: Courtesy](https://www.tbsnews.net/sites/default/files/styles/infograph/public/images/2021/09/20/p3_story_hotel_sayeman_bangabandhu.jpg)
"That candle light dinner organised for Bangabandhu at Hotel Sayeman sparked engineer Mosharraf Hossain's political career, who went on to serve the Awami league for 50 long years in keeping with Bangabandhu's political ideology. Mosharraf Hossain has served the country as an MP-minister and held other important posts," Mahbubur Rahman added.
"After Bangabandhu, his two daughters – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehna – have also been our guests, so Bangabandhu's family is an integral part of Hotel Sayeman," he said.
"Continuing the sixties' legacy, we sailed to the five-star Sayeman Beach Resort half a century ago at Kalatali Point on the beach, to connect Cox's Bazar with world tourism. The Sayeman family is working on establishing Bangabandhu's Sonar Bangla and to develop the country's tourism industry, nurturing his ideals," he continued.
A permanent state-of-the-art "Bangabandhu Corner" is being set up at the newly built Sayeman Heritage Building on the old Sayeman Hotel site in Baharchhara Jhautala. Work is underway to make it available to tourists and the next generation with some rare photographs of Bangabandhu's stay at Simon, the MD informed.
The 11-storey rich Sayeman Beach Resort has 245 rooms. The waves of the beach can be enjoyed from the upscale bedrooms in various categories. If one goes down to the swimming pool, specially placed on the 5th floor, it feels like swimming at the level of the sea close by.
There are various food arrangements by the pool. There are royal-style restaurants, spacious hall-rooms, state-of-the-art bars, and spacious parking lots and places of worship on the ground floor. The hotel has its own waste treatment plant and tourists staying at the hotel with well trained staff, are assured of world-class tourism services.
Along with tourism services, the Sayeman family also fulfils its social responsibilities. Various initiatives are taken to provide food to orphans on National Mourning Day and various other state days, including the founding anniversary of Sayeman.