Bahrain’s Ministry of Culture and Information will once again be heading up a contingent of 20 exhibitors representing the country at this year’s Arabian Travel Market (ATM).
Speaking at a press conference in Manama, Dr Heba Aziz, executive director and adviser at the ministry, said this year’s show was being widely anticipated within the tourism industry as ATM is a key pillar in the state’s comprehensive national reform programme to make Bahrain a high-quality leisure and business tourism destination for the outbound markets of the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
“Attending exhibitions gives us the opportunity to introduce Bahrain to potential visitors as an inbound GCC tourist destination in its own right. Currently we have many visitors coming to Bahrain for one day only, we want to encourage them to stay longer and to explore all that this country has to offer. Last year’s Arabian Travel Market was a huge success and I have no doubt that this year will once again prove to give an invaluable boost to our aspirations,” said Dr Heba.
Mark Walsh, group exhibitions director of Reed Travel Exhibitions, which stages the international show, said that historically Bahrain has been a staunch supporter of the Arabian Travel Market.
“Both the government and the private sector have for some time realised the potential the ATM commands as a key business vehicle and this year’s event is likely to play an even greater role than ever before in helping us all to develop new ways of catering for an ever more demanding tourist,” he said.
“Trade visitors from Bahrain will have unrivalled possibilities to identify and pursue outbound and inbound offerings from across the globe.”
Dr Heba also recently added that the island is keen to position itself as an upmarket, boutique, short break destination. Speaking at the launch of a joint exhibition on the history of legendary jeweller Jaques Cartier’s visits to the island to mark the opening of a new Cartier showroom she said: “We are using this as a stepping stone, our objective is to push the destination upwards. We are associating ourselves with exclusive brands and luxury lifestyle items, amongst which is travel.”
Euromonitor statistics show that last year, Bahrain’s outgoing tourist expenditure came to $677 million whilst domestic tourism expenditure totalled only $17 million. Just over $1,746 million came in from incoming tourists.