Tamkeen, Bahrain’s labour fund, is offering financial aid to small and medium sized travel agencies to take part in an upcoming international travel exhibition.

Tamkeen’s growth assistance programme (GAP) will offer ten SME (small and medium sized enterprise) travel agencies a co-financed deal, in which Tamkeen will support their participation at the Bahrain International Travel Expo (BITE) 2009.

The fifth edition of BITE will run from May 14 to 16 at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre.

The travel agents will benefit the GAP assistance, which will bear most of the cost and offer shell space to showcase Bahrain travel and tourism sector, holiday packages and services.

Tamkeen's GAP aims at enabling SMEs to enhance their competitiveness and potential to grow through providing them resources and access to expertise to develop their product and marketing strategies.

"It is especially apt that Tamkeen is inviting SMEs from the travel industry to take advantage of the BITE 2009 show since the travel industry globally is in a state of adjustment," said Tamkeen's chief executive Abdulellah Al Qassimi.

"Through their participation at BITE, Bahrain travel agencies will not only pick up new business but also get valuable exposure to world trends,” he added.

“The move is part of Tamkeen's support of the leadership's Vision 2030 blueprint for development of  SMEs and the private sector and boosting the travel and tourism sector."

Companies meeting the criteria of travel industry SMEs as laid down by Bahraini commercial laws can apply through Talal Abu Ghazaleh which handles Tamkeen's enterprise development scheme.

Participants will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis and will need to pay only 20 per cent of the costs to participate. – TradeArabia News Service