Festive season attracts many visitors to Bahrain

As many as 30,8385 people visited Bahrain during the festive season, said official sources in an online medium.

The online Media stated that the Assistant Undersecretary for Ports, Search and Follow-up at the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence on Thursday informed that 30,8385 people had visited Bahrain between December 17 and 23 for the National Day other festival holidays.

The sources mentioned that the most number of travellers crossed borders through the King Fahd Causeway. Around 24,8863 people entered from Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries through the Causeway, while 59,163 visitors reached through the Bahrain International Airport and 359 visitors came through the ports.

The causeway, which was opened in 1986 remains the major means by which visitors travel to the Kingdom over the years. Visitors from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait mainly use the Causeway to enter the Kingdom.

The official figures show that around 28,1755,297 people have used the causeway since it was opened until the end of 2014, an average of 26,618 travellers a day.

The causeway is supposed to have the busiest traffic among the GCC with around 112,863,043, representing an average of 10,663 vehicles in a day. Authorities in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have issued statements about increasing the number of lanes for cars, buses and trucks to ease traffic congestion, especially during the weekends and holidays.

Movie theatres screening the latest movies and shopping complexes are considered among the top reasons for trips by Saudi families or Saudi Arabia-based foreigners to Manama.

The causeway is also used by trucks, mainly from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, heading towards Bahrain to deliver or load products.

Queues of long vehicles are often seen at the Causeway.