Saint Martin's Tourism Season Extended to March 15, With 3,500 Daily Visitors and Tk 100 Fee

A longer season brings more visitors and tighter entry controls

Bangladesh will allow tourists to visit Saint Martin's Island from November 1, 2026, to March 15, 2027, raising the permitted daily average from 2,000 to 3,500 visitors and charging each tourist a Tk 100 environmental conservation fee.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change issued implementation instructions on October 25 through its Environment-2 branch. Signed by senior assistant secretary Sabrina Rahman, the instructions follow an October 12 meeting chaired by Environment Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo.

The decision opens a tourism window of four and a half months after the island was closed to visitors from February 1 for nine months. Authorised tourist ships will operate from Nuniachhara Ghat in Cox's Bazar, with environmental approval required before shipping authorities can permit their services.

For travellers, the change means more opportunities to book a trip. For the agencies managing the island, it means handling a permitted daily average that is 75 percent higher than before while enforcing restrictions on waste, wildlife disturbance, beach activities and overnight stays.

The longer season also leaves an important practical issue unresolved. The new instructions retain earlier restrictions, including rules that allowed overnight stays in December and January and closed tourism in February. Rahman confirmed that December and January overnight stays remain permitted, but the arrangements for February and the first half of March have not been explained in the same detail.

What the dates mean for travel plans

November remains a month for daytime visits only. Tourists must return on the same day, so a ticket to the island during that month does not come with permission to stay overnight.

December and January are the months for which Rahman has confirmed overnight permission under the earlier notification. Travellers planning a longer stay therefore have a clearer basis for booking during those two months than during the newly extended part of the season.

The ministry's new travel window runs through March 15, 2027, while the retained notification included a February closure. Implementation guidance will need to reconcile those provisions and set out the arrangements for the added weeks. No date for that clarification was given.

The main dates are:

• February 1, 2026: The island closed to tourists for nine months.
• October 12, 2026: An interministerial meeting reviewed visitor limits, travel dates, overnight stays and ship departure arrangements.
• October 25, 2026: The ministry issued the implementation instructions.
• November 1, 2026: Tourist visits resume, with daytime visits only during November.
• December 2026 and January 2027: Overnight stays are permitted under the retained rules, according to Rahman.
• March 15, 2027: The newly announced tourism window ends.

How much bigger is the permitted season?

The new daily average of 3,500 visitors is 1,500 higher than the previous limit of 2,000. Put simply, the authorities are allowing seven visitors for every four allowed under the earlier limit.

The ministry describes the threshold as a daily average. The instructions also call for strict control of visitor numbers and travel schedules, making ticketing and vessel permissions central to managing arrivals.

November 1 through March 15 covers 135 calendar days, including both the opening and closing dates. If 3,500 tourists visited on every one of those days, total visits would reach 472,500. That calculation assumes access throughout the announced window, including the period whose detailed arrangements still need clarification.

The extension has been described as 45 days beyond the previous November to January season. Counting the stated calendar dates gives a slightly different result: November through January contains 92 days, while the new window contains 135, an increase of 43 days.

The practical change is substantial either way. The policy expands both the number of people who can arrive and the period during which tourism is intended to operate. Environmental controls will therefore have to work across a longer season with a larger permitted flow of visitors.

What the Tk 100 conservation fee could collect

Every tourist must pay Tk 100 as an environmental conservation fee. The Department of Environment has been instructed to arrange collection, giving the fee a separate administrative role alongside vessel permissions and travel passes.

At 3,500 visitors a day, the fee would generate Tk 350,000 daily. Across 135 days at that level, receipts would total Tk 47.25 million, or Tk 4 crore 72 lakh 50 thousand. Actual collections will depend on how many tourists travel and how the full season is implemented.

The ministry's instructions cite Rule 26 of the Ecologically Critical Area Management Rules, 2016, as the basis for the department's action. The text of that provision concerns permission for surveys, research and exploration involving biodiversity, natural resources or minerals in an ecologically critical area. It also provides for fees where a profit making institution undertakes such work for commercial purposes.

Another description of the collection arrangements cites the Environment Conservation Rules, 2006. The ministry's own instructions identify the 2016 rules and Rule 26, making those the relevant stated reference for the new collection order.

The announced arrangements identify the collecting agency and the amount due from each visitor. They give no breakdown of how the receipts will be allocated among activities such as waste collection, habitat protection or monitoring tourist behaviour.

Which ships and tickets will be allowed?

Nuniachhara Ghat in Cox's Bazar is the designated departure point for authorised tourist vessels. Shipowners need approval involving the environment ministry, the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, known as BIWTA, and the Department of Shipping.

The environment ministry has a specific gatekeeping role: BIWTA and the Department of Shipping cannot authorise vessels on the Saint Martin's route without its prior approval. Permission from a transport authority alone is therefore insufficient to operate the service.

Tourists must buy tickets online through a web portal recognised by the Bangladesh Tourism Board. Each ticket must include a travel pass and a QR code. Tickets without a QR code will be treated as invalid.

A QR code is a square pattern that can be scanned to read linked information. Here, it forms part of the required travel document, connecting permission to visit with the ticketing process used to manage tourist numbers.

State Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Sheikh Faridul Islam called for travellers to use the recognised portal and follow conservation instructions during the October 12 meeting. For passengers, the concrete requirements are an authorised vessel, a valid travel pass and a ticket carrying the required code.

What visitors must avoid on the island

The continuing environmental restrictions cover activities on the beach, around wildlife and inside vegetation. They apply alongside the expanded visitor allowance, so a longer tourism season still comes with limits on what tourists may do.

At night, visitors may not light up the beach and surrounding areas, create loud noise or hold barbecue parties. Motorcycles, sea bikes and other motorised vehicles are prohibited on the beach.

Visitors are also barred from entering keya groves, the island's stands of coastal screw pine vegetation. Collecting, buying or selling keya fruit is prohibited. Restrictions protect marine turtles, birds, coral, horseshoe crabs, snails, shellfish and other biodiversity from harm.

Polythene bags must not be carried, and tourists have been told to avoid disposable plastic products. Faridul Islam urged visitors to bring their own water flasks rather than rely on plastic bottles.

The retained rules have been dated to October 22, 2025, in the ministry's new instructions, while an earlier description placed them on October 15. The October 22 notification is the one specifically carried forward by the new order.

Why water, waste and wildlife shape the decision

Saint Martin's is described as Bangladesh's only coral island and is designated an ecologically critical area. That designation places environmental protection at the centre of decisions about access and activities.

Mintoo identified the island's capacity to accommodate tourists, waste management, drinking water availability and effects on the marine environment as matters requiring consideration. He said tourism should operate while preserving the island's natural environment and biodiversity.

Those concerns connect directly to the new visitor limit. More arrivals mean more people needing drinking water and producing waste. Overnight stays extend those needs beyond the hours of a daytime excursion, which makes the rules on accommodation periods relevant to environmental management as well as holiday planning.

The restrictions address different parts of that pressure. Reusable flasks reduce reliance on disposable bottles. Limits on beach lighting and noise address disturbance around coastal habitats. Bans on collecting wildlife and entering keya groves protect particular species and places.

The fee adds a financial component to this system, while permits and coded tickets provide ways to control entry. The effectiveness of the policy will depend on how those measures operate together during the larger tourism season.

Who is responsible for putting the rules into practice?

The ministry sent the instructions across the tourism, shipping, environmental and local administration systems. Recipients included the civil aviation and tourism and shipping ministries, the Chattogram divisional commissioner, the Department of Environment, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, the Department of Shipping, BIWTA, the Bangladesh Tourism Board and the Cox's Bazar deputy commissioner. Tourist Police were also directed to help implement the decisions.

Each part of the system has a different task. Environmental approval controls which vessels may serve the island. Shipping agencies handle operating permissions. The Tourism Board's recognised ticketing system supports travel passes, while the Department of Environment is responsible for arranging fee collection.

District authorities and Tourist Police will be involved where the rules meet travellers: departures, arrivals and activities on the island. Keeping those arrangements consistent matters especially for November visitors who must return the same day and for people planning overnight trips later in the season.

The central change is now set out: a higher visitor allowance, a Tk 100 fee and an announced season ending on March 15. The immediate administrative task is to turn those decisions into a clear operating schedule while maintaining the environmental restrictions already in force.

Key Points

• The announced tourism window is November 1, 2026, to March 15, 2027.
• The permitted daily average rises from 2,000 to 3,500 visitors, an increase of 75 percent.
• Every visitor must pay a Tk 100 environmental conservation fee.
• Authorised ships will depart from Nuniachhara Ghat in Cox's Bazar and require prior environmental approval.
• Tickets must come through a recognised portal and include a travel pass and QR code.
• November permits daytime visits only; overnight stays are confirmed for December and January.
• Detailed arrangements for February and early March need clarification because earlier restrictions remain in force.
• Restrictions on beach lighting, noise, motorised vehicles, plastics and harm to wildlife continue.