Five one and two-star hotels in Bahrain have had their star rating upgraded following a six month reclassification process in light of the Culture and Information Ministry's alcohol ban, officials said.

Thirty-five one and two-star hotels had applied to be reclassified in light of the Culture and Information Ministry's alcohol ban in April, which deemed it illegal to trade liquor in these establishments.

However, only five hotels were considered to have improved sufficiently to be rewarded with the three-star rating, and will be able to start serving alcohol and offering live music.

Any hotel status upgrades should be seen as part of a natural progression towards improving the general quality of tourism in Bahrain, said assistant under-secretary for tourism Ahmed Ali Al Nawakhda.

He was speaking at a Press conference held on Thursday at Bahrain National Museum, Manama.

"We are looking to employ stricter assessment criteria for hotels and this will ultimately lead to achieving a quality service in Bahrain," he said.

"The only way to ensure a high quality service that will encourage tourists to visit more is to monitor hotels closely.

"We will, therefore, carry out an assessment programme every six months, as high standards cannot be maintained without some degree of monitoring."

Over the past few months, all 35 hotels had undergone a thorough analysis of their facilities as well as their hospitality services, said Nawakhda.

He said that he was pleased with the response of Bahrain's hoteliers. "Hoteliers are doing their best and we appreciate that, so when they requested us to consider reclassifying them we thought - why not?'" he said.

"The first stage of our reclassification involved gathering information about all the hotels - such as number of rooms and facilities - and collating them.

"Secondly, there was a pre-assessment by an independent specialist consultancy firm, which examined all 35 hotels and created preliminary findings.

"Finally, we brought over a United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) consultant, who visited all the hotels and advised them on improvement."

The final portion of the re-assessment took place over the last month and hotels were given time to improve their services or facilities based on the findings of the investigations.-TradeArabia News Service