Dhaka, Nov. 16 -- Travel, Hajj and recruiters' representatives have urged the government to withdraw the proposed 'Bangladesh Travel Agency (Registration and Regulation) (Amendment) Ordinance-2025', warning that its implementation would force thousands of agencies to shut and render millions of skilled workers unemployed.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital on Saturday (Nov 15), former ATAB president SN Monzur Morshed Mahbub said nearly 6,000 travel agencies, 1,400 Hajj agencies, and 2,700 recruiting agencies would face immediate operational risks as the draft ordinance mandates all travel agencies to be connected to the IATA ticket-selling platform.

Currently, only about 1,000 agencies are IATA-linked, forcing the remaining a...