Bahrain's retail sales nearly doubled during the last weekend, powered by a record number of visitors from Saudi Arabia, said a top official.

According to Credimax senior manager and head of merchant services and sales Amira Ismail, there was a significant surge in transactions according to data available with the company, said a report in the Gulf Daily News.

Ismail was speaking during a Press conference yesterday called to announce the company's partnership with retail major Al Hawaj for its 'Three Hot Days of July' annual promotion.

"The volume of credit card transactions processed by Credimax itself was more than BD3 million ($7.91 million) and if you consider that a good number of transactions were done in cash and by other companies, the total will be substantial," she said.

The company, a subsidiary of BBK, is a leading credit card issuer and merchant acquirer in the kingdom.

"For the 16th year in a row, Al Hawaj will run a ‘shopping festival’ from Thursday to Saturday, which will not only feature good discounts and offers on most products but also a total cash prize of $10,000 as well as gifts including TVs and digital cameras being raffled away," managing director Jawad Al Hawaj said.

"Thanks to overwhelming demand, the promotion will run across all our retail outlets growing from the one outlet where we used to have the sale when we started.

"Over the years, we have, on average, seen a 20-30 per cent jump in sales due to the promotion.

"This time we expect to do much better with an additional fillip coming from the tie-up with Credimax," he added.

The company said it will be launching Western Valley Avenue London's range of fragrances during the period and also offer the newly launched Bentley range.

"The country's retail business saw a significant revival in the last six months," Al Hawaj said. "July and August generally tend to be good months for our business and that gives us more reason to be optimistic."

Last weekend was the first after Saudi switched to Friday-Saturday from Thursday-Friday, with 300,000 crossing into Bahrain.

The number of visitors to Bahrain City Centre has risen by 4 per cent year-on-year, Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro was informed by general manager Duaij Alrumaihi during an inspection visit to various commercial establishments.

Alrumaihi said the mall logged 55,000 visitors on June 7, and the number increased to around 60,000 on June 28. During last month, more than 1.1 million visited the Bahrain City Centre, which confirms the growing numbers and economic movement in all shops and facilities, the ministry said. – TradeArabia News Service