Bahrain’s tourism sector remains hotspot for investments

Manama, Sep. 21 (BNA): The Kingdom of Bahrain’s tourism sector continues to be a hotspot for the foreign investments, thanks to major upcoming four-star properties and apartment developments across the Kingdom. Shaikh Khalid bin Humood Al Khalifa, the Chief Executive of the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority, on the sidelines of the Press conference, told the BNA that the Kingdom efforts to moderinise its tourism sector have yielded positive results as many upcoming projects speaks volumes of the attractiveness of the sector. “We have four star hotels coming up soon with beach fronts and hotel apartments due to high demand and at the Tourism Authority we will continue to support inward investments,” Shaikh Khalid said, adding currently there were seven five-star hotels in the pipeline. Shaikh Khalid said that he is looking forward for tourism investments coming up in Bahrain through the Bahrain-Pakistan Investment Forum that is taking place next week. Shaikh Khalid said that Bahrain is keen to further develop its handicrafts sector in order to elevate the economic status of the families associated with this decades old local industry. “Bahrain is keen to develop traditional handicrafts sector aiming to elevate the living standards of the craftsmen,” Shaikh Khalid said as he highlighted the importance of co-operation with Morocco in this regard. “The idea of exchange of experience between the two Kingdoms will help to elevate status of the handicrafts sector into small and medium enterprise (SME),” he added. Shaikh Khalid said that the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism who visited Morocco earlier this year focused on developing of the relationship between Morocco and Bahrain as well as enhancing co-operation in developing the handicrafts sector. Shaikh Humood, who launched the first ever Moroccan-Bahrain Handicraft Week that will kick off on Sunday 26th September 2016 at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre, said Moroccan Ambassador played a major role in organising this event in Bahrain. “In the coming few months we will also have Moroccan artists and craftsmen vising Bahrain and will conduct training programmes in sustaining and maintaining certain handicrafts in Bahrain.” “We had started with a handicrafts festival in April this year, aiming at highlighting the Bahraini craftsmen locally as previously this sector largely had been marketed abroad. Now five months later we are giving them a chance to promote their products in Bahrain again alongside the Moroccan craftsmen.” This initiative, he said, will help in sustaining the handicraft sector in medium to long term as well as upgrading craftsmen’s standard of living. “Bahrain is keen to replicate successful model of the Kingdom of Morocco which enjoys 2.5 million local craftsmen whose livelihood directly linked to this sector. In next two months we will host Moroccan experts who will conduct training and development programmes for Bahraini handicraftsmen. The long term training programme will include promoting, developing and packaging of their products.” “The Authority is also launching a website calendar.bh that will have all the events in Bahrain such as entertainment, sports or cultural. We will be having an average of two major events monthly making sure that the local people and tourists have something to look forward to. We are also launching an application called Bahrain Tour Guide, it will highlight all things to do and tourist attractions,” Shaikh Khalid said.