Myriad plans in store to attract tourists to Bahrain

Manama : Single-point-of-contact entry system is likely to be soon introduced at King Fahd Causeway to ease the traffic, according to Shaikh Khalid bin Humood Al Khalifa, Acting CEO, Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority. 

He said that the Interior Ministry will be making the final decision and the Authority has been informed about the development.

He revealed that high-level discussions are going on with the Saudi authorities regarding easing the congestion in the causeway. He added that cabins in the causeway would most likely be increased by 70 per cent from the present level.

“The main problem in the causeway is the data capture of vehicles passing through. If data of vehicles could be captured proactively with the help of technology, it could ease up the causeway congestion,” he said, while commenting on Bahrain’s efforts to boost its travel and tourism sector. 

Shaikh Khalid was speaking at the panel discussion hosted jointly by Gulf Air and Sabre Travel Network. “A pilot project has been initiated in a few five-star hotels in Bahrain to capture the spending pattern, nationality and days of occupancy. This will help the Kingdom to understand the visitors’ interests,” he said.

“Average stay of the tourists in Bahrain has increased to 2.5 days and this shows that the Kingdom has emerged from the weekend-only-destination tag,” Shaikh Khalid  added.

More beachfront properties, including seven five-star hotels, are coming up and development of new public beachfronts is also under discussion, according to the head of the BTEA. A consultancy has been contracted to study the development of public beachfronts. 

By September, request for proposals will be issued for the project. Some of these public facilities have more than a kilometre of beachfront. 

“It is very important to do it right. We may be bit slow in this, but it is given the highest importance,” he said. “There is very high demand for hotel-apartments, 39pc of visitors stay in them whereas hotel accommodate 35pc. But, the numbers of hotel-apartments are only 18 in the Kingdom where as hotels are plenty. This shows the demand supply mismatch and we have to take care of this.”

“An international campaign will be launched soon this month, highlighting the Kingdom as a top tourist destination,” he announced. 

Shaikh Khalid  added that a festival would be organised next month in Manama under the theme “city of lights.”