After unrest, a bid for recovery

Tourism authorities from Bahrain and Egypt are working to lure business travellers and conferences back after they cancelled trips and events amid the regional unrest.

A street vendor displays T-shirts in downtown Cairo. Countries that have been affected by political unrest, such as Bahrain and Egypt, are looking to coax business travellers back.

Countries in the region including Bahrain and Egypt are moving to recoup some of their losses linked to civil unrest by coaxing business travellers and conference organisers to return.

Unrest in the two countries caused business travellers and tourists to cancel trips to those destinations, and the two nations' tourism departments are working to rebuild these vital economic sectors.

"I would say that it is safe to come to Bahrain," Nada Ahmed Yaseen, Bahrain's acting assistant under secretary for tourism, said this week at the Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition in Abu Dhabi. Bahrain was investing heavily in its meetings, incentive, conferences and exhibitions sector, she said. The sector contributed US$184.6 million (Dh678m) to the country's economy last year and is expected to contribute $223.6m by next year, despite the economic disruption caused by the unrest.

Bahrain is building exhibition facilities and expects to open the first phase, valued at $380m, by the end of 2013.

Cruise ships have suspended their visits to the kingdom, and the country's biggest tourism event, the Formula One Grand Prix, was postponed amid the instability.

"The ongoing effects of the political turmoil in many countries within the Middle East are clearly uppermost in the minds of all those doing business in the region, with major conferences having been cancelled in Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen and other locations," said a report released by Reed Travel Exhibitions and meetme, a website for events planners.

The Egyptian tourism authority yesterday highlighted the GCC as an important market.

"Our message today for Arab people is 'please come to Egypt this year'," said Samy Mahmoud, the head of international tourism at the Egyptian agency. Libya has been Egypt's biggest source of Arab tourists, with 500,000 Libyans visiting each year. Saudi Arabia is next with 400,000 tourists. Kuwait provides 170,000 of Egypt's visitors annually and the UAE 50,0000.

The report from Reed and meetme, which was based on a survey of business event planners in January and February, revealed that despite the instability, 89 per cent of survey respondents said they would organise either more events or the same number of events in the region this year compared with last year.

The survey showed that the UAE remained the most popular destination for business event organisers, with 62 per cent of those planning events in the region saying they would hold events in Dubai and 48 per cent saying they would choose Abu Dhabi. The report highlighted Abu Dhabi as growing in popularity among organisers.

Just 1 per cent said Libya would be a destination, while 5 per cent of those surveyed said they held events in Libya last year. Egypt also declined in popularity, with 23 per cent of event planners intending to hold events there this year compared with 26 per cent last year.

"The region may seem just too volatile in the current political climate," the report stated. "The luxury connotations of Dubai could seem inappropriate to some clients, particularly those in Europe, where austerity is the mood of the moment, and this may well benefit Abu Dhabi and other destinations in the year ahead."

With Doha and Muscat expanding their convention facilities, those destinations could pose "serious challenges" to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the future, the report said.

Iraq and Iran could also emerge as destinations for conferences and meetings as those countries built their tourism industries, the report said.