BTEA promotes Bahrain as a unique destination for weddings

Agencies | Manama                                        

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) announced that 14 weddings will be held in the first quarter of 2023 for families from various countries.

Dr. Nasser Qaedi, CEO of Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) affirmed that the authority has doubled its efforts to attract more weddings from various continents, contributing to the recovery of "wedding tourism" in 2023 and building on the achievements pre Covid-19 pandemic.

He said that the upcoming weddings are from India, Pakistan, China, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, and others.

He stressed that the BTEA strategy consists of attracting exotic weddings and hosting international wedding organizers, expanding the network of wedding specialists, discussing the expansion plans in targeted markets and coordinating with others in various countries.

"BTEA is promoting Bahrain as a unique destination for weddings and other occasions from Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas, attracting their citizens and expatriates alike. These additional efforts are in line with our plans to develop wedding tourism in Bahrain through the "Island Wedding" initiative, which includes a variety of offers that appeal to families and tourists from all over the world," Dr. Qaedi said.

He highlighted Bahrain's role in providing plenty of surreal landscapes and exceptional venues with an international highly ranked tourism institutes, islands, beaches, the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), and heritage-based locations to host such exotic weddings, which make Bahrain a favorable place for organising with prominent, well-known hotel chains that suit all wedding parties and pre-wedding occasions, in addition to the availability of Bahraini wedding specialists.

BTEA Advisor Dr. Ali Hasan Follad pointed out that the authority managed in such a short period of time to turn the idea of promoting Bahrain as a leading tourist destination for weddings and social occasions into a tremendous trademark in this regard on the regional map by targeting international and GCC markets.

"These efforts are part of BTEA endeavors to provide the necessary support to easily organize weddings in the Kingdom, as well as playing a pivotal role in planning and collaborating with the interested parties, working collectively to organize the logistics services, selected locations, and connecting suppliers and specialists," he said.

BTEA hosted more than 54 weddings between 2017 and 2022, with 20,000 international guests and an average of 370 attendees per wedding.

The Kingdom has witnessed two weddings in 2017, ten weddings in 2018, 13 weddings in 2019, two weddings in 2020, six weddings in 2021, and 21 weddings in 2022.