The Bahrain Economic Development Board (Bahrain EDB), supported by Team Bahrain, has attracted USD291 million (BHD110 million) in direct investments in the tourism sector during the first three quarters of 2022.
Tourism investments are coming through eight companies expanding or entering Bahrain for the first time and are expected to generate over 1090 jobs over the next three years.
In total, Bahrain EDB attracted USD921 million (BHD348 million) in direct investment from 66 companies during the first nine months of the year. The investments are expected to generate over 4,700 jobs over the next three years in key sectors, including financial services, ICT, logistics, manufacturing, and tourism.
Munther Al-Mudawi, Executive Director – Business Development for Tourism at Bahrain EDB, commented: “We are pleased to witness this momentum in the tourism sector post Covid-19. All the indicators showing that we are in the right direction to recover, and with our four-year Tourism Strategy under the Economic Recovery Plan, we are hoping to attract even more investments and welcome 14 million tourists by 2026.”
As part of the Kingdoms’ Economic Recovery Plan, Bahrain announced a new 4-year strategy (2022-2026) for the tourism sector that aims to attract 14.1 million tourists by 2026. The strategy’s framework has four main objectives: To increase the contribution of the tourism sector to GDP to reach 11.4 percent in 2026, highlight Bahrain’s position as a global tourist hub, increase the number of targeted countries to attract more tourists, and diversify tourism products.
According to the latest statistics, Bahrain registered 6.9 million visitors by the end of September 2022. The hospitality and hotel sector recorded around 5.9 million tourist nights, and the total tourism revenues amounted to around USD1.7 billion (BHD 622.4 million) during the first half of 2022.
