Dhaka, Apr 11 (IANS): A survey report has revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a heavier blow to Bangladesh's hospitality sector.

The country's hospitality sector incurred a loss of about 173 billion takas in gross value added during the pandemic, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.

The Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), a leading think-tank, conducted the survey with hundreds of hotels, resorts, travel agencies, tour operators, restaurants and their employees across the eight administrative divisional cities r.

The findings of the survey, titled "The Covid-19 pandemic and the hospitality and tourism sector in Bangladesh", also showed that hospitality sales and revenues fell sharply in the second quarter (April-June) of 2020 compared to that in the same period a year earlier.

The report estimated that the sector would have contributed about 260 billion takas in terms of gross value added if there were no pandemic.

It further estimated that contributions of the sector squeezed to around 87 billion takas because of the pandemic in the above-cited period.