Another Gulf country has unveiled a global tourism project that plans to at least replicate the success of the Emirates and attract more tourists. A $ 427 million resort development project was presented in Bahrain.
According to the initiators of the project, the new resort will help the country catch up with the more popular tourist destinations in the Persian Gulf and make the country a popular place for beach holidays. The project will include new beaches, floating restaurants, luxury hotels and water attractions on the coast of Bahrain, as well as an exhibition center worth $ 221 million, which will be the largest in the Middle East.
Bahrain’s Tourism and Exhibition Authority (BTEA) has begun developing a master plan for the resort in 2017, and construction is expected to be completed in 2026, with three-quarters of the projects to be presented by the end of this year.
Experts say Bahrain, an archipelago of 33 natural islands, hosted 4.3 million tourists a year before the pandemic. This is not even a fifth of the tourist flow to the UAE – there the figures reached 15 million. In 2020, the country lost 92% of tourist flow. But did not despair.
Nasser Kaedi, CEO of BTEA, said Bahrain had benefited from the lull in tourism caused by global restrictions on travel through Covid-19, using this time to implement tourism infrastructure projects. Bahrain’s development plan includes the construction of new public and private beaches, luxury hotels and floating restaurants on the island’s coast. Work is currently underway on three large-scale projects: the Galali Quay project, the Bahrain Bay project and the construction of a new Bahrain exhibition center in Sahir, covering more than 300,000 square meters.
“We are the only island nation in the Middle East. This identity of the island’s coastline is very important for our value as a tourist destination,” said Kaedi.