Bahrain tourism has been in a "downward spiral" since the political unrest of 2011, said a top hotelier, expressing his fears for the future if the government does not do more to convince people to visit the country.

Kempinski Grand and Ixir Hotel Bahrain City Centre general manager Puneet Singh criticised tourism chiefs for their lack of urgency in revitalising the sector, reported the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

He said he has been repeatedly snubbed by the Culture Ministry as he sought to arrange meetings to discuss future plans.

"If we continue to rely solely on the Saudi and Kuwaiti market we will not be able to sustain tourism here, especially with so many new hotels opening," said Singh, who has worked in 11 hotels throughout the world including China and Turkey.

"While these visitors offer us business over the weekend, it is a struggle to fill rooms from Sundays to Wednesdays and that is only set to get worse now we have so many new hotels being built."

His comments come after the GDN revealed hundreds of millions of dinars are being invested in Bahrain's tourism industry with five new luxury hotels due to open in the next six months.

Singh, who has run the Kempinski for the past year, fears there will simply not be enough visitors to fill the hundreds of new hotel rooms and with an increase in supply without the demand he has predicted every hotel in Bahrain will suffer, including his own.

"Everyone will get a smaller slice of the pie," he said.

"The top 10 hotels in Bahrain currently have an occupancy rate of around 48 per cent but in the next year or less I predict that will fall to around 43pc unless we see a more pro-active approach by the tourism department.

"The problem I have found is that there is no co-operation, in fact rather than the government helping us, they are providing us with more challenges whenever we have tried to actively promote the hotel and Bahrain as a destination.

"Having worked in 11 countries throughout the world, this has been the hardest by far to get anything to happen.

"I have approached the powers that be many times to try and organise a meeting so we can talk about how we can move forward and work together but it's proved impossible. Increasing tourism is so important for the future of Bahrain and will see an increase in employment, more investment and better services.

"Bahrain has a huge amount of potential, it has a lot to offer visitors, but at the moment that potential is just not being realised. Hotels are relying on whatever is coming in through the causeway at the weekends, they are putting all their eggs in one basket; the Saudi market."

Singh said he wanted to see the visa process becoming easier and more accessible, the beaches cleaned up and better publicising of sporting events as well as promoting Bahrain's unique selling points, such as its World Heritage sites.

"Bahrain is a jewel in the dark; everyone knows it is there but no-one sees it shimmer," he said. "We need to make more noise and ask ourselves where are tourists going, why have they stopped coming here and how can we get them back?"

Events

However, the Culture Ministry, which deals with tourism, hit back at the criticism, saying it employed many people to promote Bahrain internationally.

"Mr Singh has every right to express his views and opinions but we have held many events and programmes to attract visitors to Bahrain and we have many more things lined up," said media consultant Dr Elie Flouty.

"We have an entire department within the ministry of culture which deals with tourism. We have had and are due to have international musicians coming to perform which attracts people from all over the world.

"We don't keep things just for the GCC area at all and we have had Press conferences in Paris, Berlin and London to promote Bahrain as a tourism destination. At the moment we have an exhibition in Moscow museum promoting Bahrain,” Dr Flouty added. – TradeArabia News Service