Visitors and residents in Bahrain are in for a treat this month as malls across the kingdom have lined up exciting activities, entertainments, discounts and prizes as part of the fifth edition of Shop Bahrain.

The 30-day event, aimed at celebrating the kingdom’s hospitality and tourism offering, kicked off on January 1 and runs till February 2.

During the first weekend of the festival, participating shopping malls held a number of activities including the “Traditional Music” event which was held in Seef Mall and the “Jerba Performance” held in Gold City last week. Both events focused on highlighting Bahrain’s traditional music to the visitors. Also, Al A’ali Shopping Complex will be hosting the Giant Mirror Selfie station, allowing visitors to take amazing group selfies with family and friends from the January 3-19.

In the upcoming weekends, participating malls will offer even more fun activities to accommodate the surge of shoppers during Shop Bahrain in order for the visitors and shoppers to enjoy the nation-wide festive atmosphere.

Seef Mall – Seef District will be hosting a “Frozen Walkabout” between January 11 and 13 while in The Avenues shoppers will be dazzled by the acrobatic and graceful moves of the “Gymnastics Walkabout” on January 11 and 12.
 
The Bahrain Mall will also be hosting the “Foot Billiard” from January 10-February 2, where shoppers can engage in a one-on-one match with their friends. Also, Enma Mall will host the “Voice Pipe” event aimed to cultivate children’s imagination while The Courtyard will be hosting its outdoor Pop-Up Market featuring food vendors and retailers on weekends starting from January 10 to February 2.

Galleria Mall is also joining the festival this year by offering VR Games from January 10-19. In addition, Ikea will host the “Box of Shadows”, an art installation honouring one of Bahrain’s most iconic poet, Shaikh Isa bin Rashid Al Khalifa. The other participating malls will also be hosting activities next week.

The Festival City, Shop Bahrain’s main event, will be launched on January 17 at the Bahrain International Circuit - the Festival City partner - in Sakhir. The event will include a number of family-oriented activities including a wide range of exciting activities, live performances and carnival games and an outdoor market and cinema. It will also feature a daily lineup of live musical local bands for visitors to enjoy.

Organised by the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), the festival is held in cooperation with partners from the public and private sectors such as Tamkeen, VIVA, Gulf Air and A.A. Bin Hindi Group as strategic partners. Prize partners include Gravity, Awal Gas, Hawar Beach Hotel, Kitchen for Life Company, the Ice Cream Shop and Rahim Holdings.

This year’s edition will feature more than 73,000 prizes including 11 cars, electronics from A.A. Bin Hindi Group, 5,000 discounted airline tickets from Gulf Air, thousands of instant prizes from Viva and much more.

Shop Bahrain is one of the kngdom’s major initiatives that aims to stimulate the national economy by focusing on retail and tourism sectors. The transactions recorded in the last edition reached a total of BD19 million ($50 million) with over 137,150 registered shoppers in the loyalty system from Bahrain and other countries.

The Loyalty System enables shoppers to enter the raffle draw and get the opportunity to win valuable prizes. For every BD10 ($26.3) and above receipts, shoppers can redeem their points through the festival kiosks located across participating malls and hotels, or via the Shop Bahrain app. With every BD50 ($131.8) spent, shoppers will be eligible to win instant prizes. - TradeArabia News Service