Dhaka, Sept. 27 -- No one, it seems, actually knows how many foreign tourists visit Cox's Bazar each year.

The district administration, airport authorities, hotel and motel operators and even the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation have no reliable count of how many foreigners travel to the beach town purely as tourists.

Officials say a large share of the foreign nationals seen in Cox's Bazar are there for work, including with NGOs and international organisations.

They may rent local flats or stay in hotels and visit tourist spots in their spare time, but tourism is not necessarily the purpose of their trip.

Cox's Bazar Deputy Commissioner A Mannan said: "A large section of foreign nationals come to Cox's Bazar for development projects, i...