Bahrain's Tourism Minister Fatima Al Sairafi has been awarded "Best Woman Tourism Minister of the Year" by the Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA) at ITB Berlin, the world's biggest travel and trade fair, in recognition of her efforts to promote tourism. 

 

Al Sairafi was chosen by a specialized judging panel for the PATWA International Travel Awards after it closely examined 29 women tourism ministers from across the globe.

 

The PATWA International Travel Awards recognise individuals and organisations that have excelled and are involved in the promotion of tourism from different sectors of the travel trade such as aviation, hotels, travel agencies, tour operators, destinations, government bodies, tourism ministries and other service providers related directly or indirectly to the industry.

 

The PATWA jury explained that Al Sairafi's achievements and accomplishments in upgrading the tourism and travel sector in Bahrain played a key role in the decision to honour her with the "Best Women Tourism Minister of the Year" Award. 

 

She has also played a pivotal role over the past months to promote Bahrain and other countries in the region as one destination which reflects how independent destinations can benefit from cooperation with other countries.

 

"As a tourism minister of an important but smaller Gulf destination, she showed the world how independent countries and regions can benefit from cooperation with other countries. Under her leadership, tourism in the kingdom is 90% back from pre-covid 2019 levels," stated PATWA jury members. 

 

Her endeavours provided pivotal support to the businesses operating in the tourism field to recover from the impact of CovidD-19 compared to the pre-pandemic era, outperforming the international recovery rate, which was estimated by the World Tourism Organisation at 65%. 

 

Al Sairafi said: "Efforts of our teams at the Ministry of Tourism and Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), in addition to our partners in the private tourism establishments as well as other stakeholders, showed excellent results."

 

"This is a testament to our keen desire to contribute as part of Team Bahrain to overcome the obstacles that the tourism sector went through during the pandemic and bring back this important field to its normal position to enable it to contribute to boosting the national economy, diversifying income sources, creating employment opportunities and attracting investments," she noted. 

 

According to her, Bahrain is active in regional tourism activities and the Meeting and Incentive industry market. Many young Saudi Arabians see Bahrain as a popular weekend destination, she stated. 

 

"Bahrainis see Saudi Arabia as a destination of many new trendy and cultural opportunities – and travel between the two countries is booming, especially on weekends," she added.-TradeArabia News Service