Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 17, 2017 - July 23, 2017

AS Bahrain continues in its bid to diversify its economy, it also intends to expand its tourism and leisure sector, with various developments in the pipeline aimed at improving its infrastructure and creating new attractions to bring more visitors to the island state.

According to Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority (BTEA) director Yousef Mohammed AlKhan, the sector contributed about 6.3% to Bahrain’s non-oil gross domestic product last year, up from 4.6% the year before.

The country is targeting to increase this to 7% by next year.

“For tourism, it’s really exciting because any infrastructure project will have an impact on tourism. One of them is the expansion of the airport, which goes hand in hand with the expansion of Gulf Air’s fleet of aircraft,” says Yousef.

The government has earmarked US$1.1 billion to modernise the Bahrain International Airport, which includes the construction of a new passenger terminal building and other infrastructure upgrades. These are expected to be completed in 2020.

There are also plans to set up a second causeway — the King Hamad Causeway — to Saudi Arabia, which will include a rail link, and to expand the King Fahd Causeway to increase traffic flow, seeing as 83% of the 12.3 million visitors to Bahrain last year came through the causeway.

Yousef says more than half of the visitors to the country are Saudi nationals, adding that Bahrain is the No 1 destination for Saudis in the world, followed by the United Arab Emirates in second place.

“We had 12.3 million visitors in 2016, which is actually a huge number for a country the size of Bahrain. [Of these visitors] 7.3 million came from Saudi Arabia, mainly due to us having the causeway and it’s only a four-hour drive from Riyadh,” he explains.

Besides that, the government is also working on developing new attractions, including the redevelopment of a few of Bahrain’s beaches and waterfronts as well as bringing in more five-star hotels and apartments.

While the new developments are well underway, Yousef says BTEA is working on putting the country on the map to attract more visitors from around the world. Thus, it has set up seven offices around the world.

BTEA currently has offices in the UK, France, Germany, Russia, Saudi Arabia and China.

It has yet to set up an office in Southeast Asia but Yousef says the region, including Malaysia, is definitely on the list.

“Currently, all the offices are in markets that we have a direct flight to, except for China. For Malaysia, it would make much more sense once we have a direct flight because if not, it would be very difficult to promote the country.

“We are in talks with Gulf Air to see what we can do,” he says.

Yousef explains that Gulf Air previously had a direct flight from Bahrain to Malaysia but had cancelled it in 2012 for commercial reasons. However, the airline may have a direct flight to Malaysia once it has more long-haul aircraft in its fleet, he says.

Meanwhile, Bahrain Economic Development Board managing director Simon Galpin says the board is in talks with Malaysian airline operators for a direct flight to Bahrain.

“Yes, we are in talks but I can’t say [with] which ones. We are in talks with more than one airline operator,” he says, without divulging any details.

“I think there’s a comfort level for both sides, Malaysia and Bahrain. English is the business language, so this is going to be a very comfortable environment for Malaysians to visit and live in.

“It works both ways, as Bahrainis can visit Malaysia, which is also a tremendous tourist destination. I think what’s really holding us back are those direct links,” Galpin remarks.

 

 

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