15 new star hotels to come up in Bahrain
Manama : The hotel and restaurant sector in the Kingdom witnessed a robust growth of 3 per cent in fiscal 2016, according to figures released in the latest Bahrain Economic Quarterly published by the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).
This was underpinned by plans to establish 15 new five-star and four-star hotels and beachfront resorts, with an aggregate investment value of more than $10 billion over the next five years.
The list of world-renowned hotel brands planning to launch new projects are: The One & Only Resort, Wyndham Grand Hotel, Fairmont, Vida Hotel & Resort, The Address Hotel & Resort, Ibis Hotel and Pullman Hotel.
These hotels will add to the nation’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 Centre.
In order to continue to attract new visitors and support demand, Bahrain has unveiled its brand-new tourism identity: ‘Ours. Yours. Bahrain’ as part of Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA)’s commitment towards reinvigorating tourism.
The campaign’s strategic and infrastructure initiatives aim to increase this amount to $1 billion by 2020, effectively doubling tourism’s contribution to Bahrain’s GDP from 3.6 per cent to 6.6 per cent.
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.
Stressing the importance of the Kingdom’s developments in the tourism and hospitality sectors, Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive at the Bahrain EDB commented: “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 per cent increase in the number of tourist arrivals, receiving 12.2 million,” Al Rumaihi added.
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