Doha now targets Bahrain’s thriving tourism segment

Special teams deployed to send warning messages to tourists by highlighting fake reports of violence

Qatar is putting in best efforts to target the Kingdom’s flourishing tourism sector by highlighting bogus reports of violence, it emerged. Tourists to the Kingdom are being contacted with alarming photos and fake news regarding safety across Bahraini streets, according to findings of a study.

Specially-assigned teams contact them privately and announce to the visitors that conflicts and violence are common in some of the most popular areas of Bahrain, which is totally against the real situation.

This was revealed to Tribune by The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, which conducted the study. The study revealed that groups have intentionally targeted tourists to harm Bahrain’s reputation in the international community.

The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies regional director Amjad Taha said that it is part of a larger campaign to destabilise the nation. “The tourists are sent misleading messages and disturbing photos by these groups. They would tell them that certain streets are engulfed in violence and that they should be careful.

“They would even send pictures of violence insinuating that those are happening in Bahrain at the time. But in reality none of this is true; none of the violence or the incidents that they are claiming has any truth in them. “Those are fabricated; they have made it all up for their agenda. This is being done to scare people from coming to Bahrain and to taint the reputation of the country.

“Use of such tactics shows that people of Bahrain has won against them. They have to resort to such tactics on social media means that they have been helpless in other ways.” “The tourists that we surveyed said that they were contacted out of nowhere by people they had never seen or interacted with before.

“They told us that they received photos of people throwing Molotov cocktails and engaging in other forms of violence, and telling them not to go to areas such as Juffair and City Centre as they were hotspots of violence.”

“From our research, we found that these claims were lies. The tourists, upon learning that these were untrue claims, went to those locations anyway and found out for themselves that no such violent activities were going on there.”