| 13 Jul 2010 |
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Bahrain generated $1.7b from tourism in 2009
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Bahrain's tourism sector has a huge potential for growth, thanks to the Kingdom's strategic location and a close proximity to the region'sbiggest economies, a senior hospitality industry expert said yesterday.
"Tourism sector still has a huge untapped potential and the revenue from this segment can be increased manifold by developing the basic facilities like beaches and historic tourist destinations," Michel H.Mandrea, General Manager, Golden Tulip Bahrain said in an interview yesterday.
Being an Island nation, he said, the public beaches are almost non-existent in the Kingdom.
This has been largely restricting the scope for prospective tourists over the past many years especially those who love sandy beaches in the Gulf region.
According to official statistics, Bahrain had generated $1.7 billion from tourism in 2009.
Last year, Bahrain's spending on outgoing tourist expenditure reached $677 million whereas domestic tourism expenditure totalled only $17 million.
Michel, who has been working in the hospitality sector since 1980s and spent most of the time with many hotels in Bahrain, said the initiatives like preserving the traditional souq and developing stopover packages for the passengers using Bahrain International AirportBahrain International Airport
(BIABIA) would help to re-position the tourism sector of Bahrain as a vital segment of the economy.Currently, BIABIA being one of the busiest airports in the region receives many visitors coming to Bahrain for one day only. The national carrier Gulf AirGulf Air had announced earlier that it was planning to partner with the hotels and other industry players to encourage the passengers to stay for a longer period and explore all that this country has to offer.
Talking about the Bahrain International Travel Expo (BITE) he said it would be necessary to change the dates of this event as well as the whole concept of the target audience and contents of the event.
"We have discussed this issue in detail with the BITE organisers that there should be no overlapping of dates with other regional tourism shows like well-established ATM Dubai and similar events in Oman and other GCC countries.
"Golden Tulip Group has presented Bahrain at the ATM 2010 very well and we have received a very good response from that forum. This is the whole idea behind holding the BITE and ATM and other events at different timings so that businesses from across the GCC can participate in all events comfortably," he said.
Michel said the Kingdom's hotel industry largely escaped the major impact of the financial crisis as hotels have been maintaining comfortable occupancy levels.
At Golden Tulip, he said, we are maintaining between 60 and 68 per cent which has been a well sustained trend over past many months.
"Golden Tulip will have special Ramadhan Tent as well as Iftar area to make it different from the traditional Ramadhan tents. We have developed unique packages for the families and the corporate clients within the main tent while the Iftar parties will be held at the Gilgamesh Ball Room. Gulf AirGulf Air is among the other sponsors of our Ramadhan initiative and we are expecting a huge success of this product this year," he added.
By Mahmood Rafique
© Bahrain Tribune 2010
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