Tourism
From The Report: Bahrain 2016
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Known in ancient times as Dilmun, the inspiration for the Garden of Eden, and more recently as Ard Million Nakhla, or the Land of a Million Date Palms, Bahrain has been welcoming visitors for centuries. In 2014 tourism receipts reached $1.4bn, accounting for 4.2% of the country’s GDP, and they are forecast to grow by 4.9% annually between 2015 and 2025. Under the Bahrain Tourism Strategy 2015-18, a new Supreme Council for Tourism was created that aims to help guide development of the sector. Hotels and serviced apartments, known as “aparthotels”, are a segment forecast to expand by compound annual growth rates of 15.2% and 11.4%, respectively, between 2013 and 2018. The MICE segment meanwhile is another important component of the industry, contributing $400m in 2013 alone thanks to major events such as the Jewellery Arabia fair, which attracts more than 50,000 visitors.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Far and wide: The extension and upgrading of facilities is attracting a growing number of visitors
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Known in ancient times as Dilmun, the inspiration for the Garden of Eden, and more recently as Ard Million Nakhla, or the Land of a Million Date Palms, Bahrain has been welcoming visitors to its shores for centuries. More recently, the island was the first country in the Gulf to develop a modern tourist industry, when it established itself as the region’s first leisure and services centre during the oil boom of the 1970s. Since then, the tourism sector has gone from strength to strength, and with…

Analysis

Come one, come all: The kingdom provides a wide range of experiences to attract visitors from near and far
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Bahrain’s National Tourism Strategy extends from 2015 to 2018 and envisages a change of strategy for the industry. The kingdom emerged as the first shopping, leisure and service centre in the Gulf in the 1970s, and consequently began to attract high weekend traffic from across the region. Since 2000 other regional leisure destinations have begun to mature, with Bahrain taking steps to differentiate itself, bringing events such as motorsports to the country. Under the new strategy, the authorities…

Analysis

Time to shine: Manama’s status as 2016 tourism capital set to boost the sector
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New investments in the hospitality sector and efforts to raise Bahrain’s international profile should drive tourism growth in 2016, broadening the kingdom’s appeal as a destination for travellers from the region and further afield. With Manama named the “Capital of Gulf Tourism 2016” in early January by the tourism ministers of the GCC, a series of projects and exhibitions are planned to help bolster intra-regional tourism and showcase the country’s touristic potential. Growth Measures According…

Analysis

Destination management: Public-private collaboration is helping to enhance the sector’s offerings
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Good hotels and visitor attractions are in no short supply in Bahrain. The island boasts 18 five-star hotels, including names such as Ritz-Carlton and Novotel, and in recent years chains such as Rotana and Four Seasons have entered the market. In addition to sporting fixtures such as the Bahrain Grand Prix, the country has natural attractions like the Hawar Islands, cultural sites such as the Barbar burial mounds, and two World Heritage Sites – the Bahrain Fort, and the Pearl Diving Trail. Until…