BAHRAIN’S Gulf Hotel took advantage of the coming airshow and F1 Grand Prix as a platform to promote the island to a group of influential UK travel writers.
Dee McGuinness director of business development and strategy said: “There are important events coming up for the island and, as the only truly Bahraini-owned hotel, we wanted to get involved with raising awareness about both the Gulf Hotel and what Bahrain has to offer.”
She organised a familiarisation trip for Angela Antrobus, of Cat Publications, Julie Baxter or BMI Publications, Olivia Hemmings of the Travel Trade Gazette and Chris Beamland of the Daily Express.
McGuinness continued: “The UK is a prime market for us and we wanted to push the hotel and the island so we chose a wide range of journalists from across the spectrum of publications both trade and public.”
The hotel joined up with Kanoo Travel and Gulf Air to host the visitors and the group was taken on island tours visiting the Bahrain International Circuit as well as other areas of interest.
Baxter said: “There is no tourism representative from Bahrain in London so it was a good experience to come and see the island and know what is on offer here, which is a surprising amount.”
Antrobus added: “I have been to Bahrain before, it was only a few years ago but it was amazing to see how much things have changed with so much new building even in that short space of time, which is one of the things that makes trips like this so important both for us and for the destination.”
McGuinness added: “They’ve had a really useful trip and got a good idea of what is on offer in Bahrain for visitors. Hopefully they will now go back to the UK and provide positive coverage in our primary market.'