Developers are ploughing BD1 million ($2.65 million) into a major renovation of a Bahrain resort, which will pave the way for the reopening of Hawar Islands to tourists in September.

A contract for the complete refurbishment of the facilities at the Tulip Inn Hawar Beach Resort was signed yesterday by property owners Southern Area Development Company (Sadco) and World DŽcor, which will carry out the work.

The hotel will be managed for the next 10 years by the Golden Tulip Hotels Group, which entered into an agreement with Sadco last October.

'We will have this excellent property become one of the major tourist attractions for everyone inside and outside Bahrain,' said Sadco chairman Saleh Mohammed Al Musallam.

'This is an ideal time to invest in the tourism sector in the country and we feel the Golden Tulip Group will do an excellent job.'

The renovation contract, worth BD1,090,800, was signed by Al Musallam; World DŽcor managing director Abdulla Al Khan and Talk Design Consultancy managing director Abdul Aziz Al Abbassi at the Sadco offices in the Diplomatic Area.

Al Khan said the renovation would cover all guest rooms, the hotel's main lobby, meeting rooms, health club, new Lebanese and seafood restaurants and other hotel facilities such as pools, outdoor Jacuzzi, beach, staff accommodation and all 16 two-bedrooms apartments.

He said work should be completed in the next four months.

Tulip Inn operations manager Mustapha Chatila said the hotel would start accepting guests officially from September 15.

The property was managed by the Baisan Hotel Group until almost a year ago.

'The September opening will be phase one,' he said. 'The second phase is set to go on stream later this year.'

Chatila said the resort would also target business houses and companies. 'World-class facilities to cater to meetings and conferences are being created at the resort and these have received a lot of interest already,' he added.

The property was built in 1995 and was handed over to the Baisan Hotel Group in 1998 after it became operational.

The resort, 20km to the southeast of the mainland, can be reached in 45 minutes by speedboat.-TradeArabia News Service