Tourism sector's share in Bahrain GDP set to grow
MANAMA, January 7, 2019
The tourism sector's share in Bahrain's economy is expected to grow to 8.3pc in 2022 from 6.5 per cent last year, said Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) CEO Shaikh Khaled bin Hamoud Al Khalifa.
He was speaking at the Gulf Air Annual Commercial Conference, held at the Wyndham Grand Hotel in Bahrain yesterday.
The conference was attended by the airline’s chairman, executive management, station managers from the airline’s network, BTEA officials, Bahrain Airport Company and Gulf Air Group executives.
Bahrain last year (2018) welcomed 12 million visitors and the numbers are expected to reach 14.6 million in 2022.
The objective of BTEA, set up in 2016, is to see the kingdom develop as a boutique destination, he said.
"We are no longer a weekend destination with the average length of stay by tourists reaching 2.85 days last year. It is expected to increase to 3.5 days by 2022," he added.
The daily average spend of a tourist in Bahrain was BD80, which is expected to grow to BD97.9 in 2022.
In the tourism sector, 22 new hotels will come up in the next three to four years increasing substantially the availability of rooms from the present 21,465, said Shaikh Khaled.
Meanwhile, the tender for the prestigious new international exhibition centre at Sakhir is expected to be awarded in the first quarter of this year. The expo centre, which will be 10 times of the size of the present one, is expected to be completed by 2021, he said.
BTEA is also developing five new beach-front projects in the kingdom, which will include hotels, beach sports facilities, shopping complexes etc. It also plans to develop a 600-m beachfront area with five plots for private developers at Bahrain Bay. One of the plots will have a public beach. - TradeArabia News Service
