According to figures released in the latest Bahrain Economic Quarterly (BEQ) by the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), the country’s hotel and restaurant sector witnessed robust growth at a rate of 3 percent. This was underpinned by plans to establish 15 new five- and four-star hotels and beachfront resorts, with a collective investment value of more than $10 billion over the next five years.
The list includes world-renowned hotel brands including: One&Only Resort, Wyndham Grand Hotel, Fairmont, Vida Hotel & Resort, The Address Hotel & Resort, Ibis Hotel and Pullman Hotel. These hotels will add to Bahrain’s existing portfolio of over 190 hotels and resorts. This includes 18 five-star hotels, 48 four-star hotels, 35 three-star hotels, 81 serviced apartments and 11 resorts. These hotels currently offer a capacity of more than 16,500 rooms, with big names such as the recently opened Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, ART Rotana Amwaj Islands Hotel & Resort, Downtown Rotana, the Westin and Le Meridian Hotel Bahrain City Center.
In order to continue to attract new visitors and support demand, Bahrain unveiled its brand-new tourism identity: “Ours. Yours. Bahrain” as part of Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority’s (BTEA) commitment toward reinvigorating the country’s tourism industry. The campaign’s strategic and infrastructural initiatives aim to increase this amount to $1 billion by 2020, effectively doubling tourism’s contribution to Bahrain’s GDP from 3.6 percent to 6.6 percent.
BTEA also established six international offices to help drive development and raise awareness of Bahrain’s tourism in key global markets such as: UK, France, India, Germany and Russia.
Khalid Al-Rumaihi, chief executive at the Bahrain EDB, said: “These future investments in the hospitality sector will bring several new international hotel chains to the Kingdom and raise the profile of existing ones. It is expected to increase hotel capacity by around 4,000 hotel rooms in the country by 2020 and fill the gaps in the market, especially in the mid-market and luxury sector -for example, in the development of all-inclusive premium resorts.
“These new developments will both help to meet rising demand and attract new visitors to the Kingdom. Bahrain showed strong growth in tourist numbers in 2016, witnessing a 6 percent increase in the number of tourist arrivals, receiving 12.2 million. Bahrain is a regional hub for tourism, with over 300 million people ... of which the majority are regional visitors traveling from within the GCC.”

Source: Arab News