Tourists spent over BD3bn in Bahrain

Manama :Tourists spent more than BD3 billion in the Kingdom throughout the year 2015, the latest official statistics revealed.

Commenting on the development, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani said that BD338.5 million is the contribution of Bahrain’s tourism sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is 3.6 per cent. 

He also revealed that 11.6m people visited Bahrain last year, in which 59pc of them were Saudis.

“Spending by Saudi visitors  are estimated to be around BD7bn annually. With 20m travellers a year, the Saudi and GCC markets are the main target of our new tourism strategy,” the Minister explained. 

The Ministry’s figures showed that tourism has grown by 44.14pc from 2012 to 2015. According to International surveys, Bahrain enjoys 60th spot in tourism ahead of countries like Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Algeria. Looking ahead, the Minister said that the Ministry is following a strategy to develop tourism and increase its share in the country’s GDP to BD685.2m (6.6pc) by the year 2018. More about Bahrain’s tourism strategy will be discussed in the upcoming Parliament’s weekly session on Tuesday.