By the end of the year Bahrain will have a fully-fledged tourism ministry, a government official said yesterday. Until now tourism had been handled by the Ministry of Information but, earlier this year, laws to form a ministry of tourism were ratified by the country's courts. "All that's left now is their endorsement by parliament, which has been delayed because parliament is on a summer break," said Mohammed Nass, the chief executive for Tourism Marketing and Promotion Projects for the kingdom.
The new ministry will act as a promotional and guidance body for the sector, which was expected to contribute 25 per cent to the country's GDP in seven years time. "Right now tourism contributes about 10 per cent to GDP and, in order to reach our goal of more than doubling that percentage, we need to have a ministry," said Mr Nass. He described the move as being similar to the establishment of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) in 2005. "Our main role will be to promote the kingdom and help tourism destinations and attractions improve their services," said Mr Nass, who declined to give details about the budget allocated to the new ministry.
At present the Formula One Grand Prix, held in Bahrain in March, is the biggest single contributor to the country's tourism sector. Research conducted by Godo Research and Marketing Consultancy, based in Dubai, found that the race attracted 99,981 people last year and brought in 207 million Bahraini dinar (Dh2bn) - almost 7.6 per cent of the kingdom's gross domestic product last year. The tourism affairs department had meanwhile started a programme to improve the quality of service in four and three star hotels.
"We noticed that there is a huge gap between the services provided by a five-star and four-star hotels so we decided to start this project in order to bridge the gap," said Mr Nass. The programme mainly involves educational workshops, which will help these hotels realise the importance of improving their service levels and marketing techniques. "Occupancy rates for five star hotels are high but when it comes to three and four star hotels they could use a boost," said Mr Nass.
Currently there were 109 four-star and three-star hotels in Bahrain and, according to studies run by the tourism affairs department, 60 to 70 per cent of the tourists coming to Bahrain would prefer to stay at a hotel of that standard. About 60 per cent of the country's tourists were from the GCC region. Bahrain's long-term tourism strategy would focus on boutique hotels that target high income tourists, said Mr Nass. "But in order to get to that point we have to start improving the service standards of all hotels from the bottom up," he added.
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