Shop Bahrain sets new sales records

Manama : By generating a record BD19 Million worth of transactions, the recently concluded Shop Bahrain festival, with its impressive line of activities, has turned out to be a huge hit among shoppers. 

Spending, according to the organisers of the fourth edition of the Bahrain Shopping Festival, has more than doubled, when compared to the BD8 million worth of transaction recorded last year. 

During a press conference held yesterday at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre, the organisers told the reporters that the Festival resulted in generating more than 145,000 transactions compared to 130,000 transactions made last year. 

More than 137,000 shoppers registered in the Festival Loyalty System and were enrolled in the raffle draw to win the numerous prizes offered by the strategic partners compared to 48,000 shoppers registered last year.

The 30-day shopping extravaganza, which is also the largest event in the Kingdom, that took place from 11th January and until 10th February 2018, coincided with the holidays of the neighbouring GCC countries and Bahrain.  

“This years edition was a great success in comparison to the previous years, where the value of transactions increased significantly, in addition to the number of visitors, participating restaurants, hotels and shopping malls, as well as the prizes,” said Chief Executive Officer of the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa.

The Festival saw the participation of 27 hotels compared to 22 hotels last year, 21 shopping malls compared to 18 last year and 41 participating restaurants in the ‘Taste Tour’ compared to 29 restaurants in the previous edition.

The ‘Festival City’ welcomed more than 70,290 visitors from the Kingdom and the neighbouring countries in comparison to 45,000 visitors last year. While the in-mall activities received more than 51,710 visitors in comparison to 35,000 visitors last year. Also, the ‘Taste Tour’ received 2,500 participants visiting the participating restaurants from around the Kingdom in comparison to 2,016 participants last year. The festival attracted more than 122,000 visitors from neighbouring countries.

The previous edition of the Festival included 38,015 prizes in comparison to more than 80,000 prizes offered this year that included a luxury apartment in Juffair from HouseME, 20 cars from YK Al Moayyed & Sons compared to 13 cars offered last year, and 6,000 airline tickets at a special rate from Gulf Air compared to 100 free tickets offered last year, and more than 30,000 instant prizes from VIVA Bahrain. 

Looking ahead, Shaikh Khaled said, “We look forward to launching the next edition of Shop Bahrain and towards developing a more robust events calendar.” 

The Head of Tourism Relations at BTEA, Reem Tawfiqi  added that this year’s edition differs as it provided a variety of activities that suit all ages, as well as many valuable prizes. 

The Festival comes in-line with BTEA’s long-term strategy ‘Ours.Yours’ that contributes to the increase in the revenues generated by the tourism sector and the national economy, while attracting families from neighbouring Gulf countries to participate in the Festival.