The Kingdom of Bahrain launched its new tourism identity under the slogan of ‘Ours. Yours' in a step to further develop the tourism sector as a main contributor to the national economy. The new brand embraces the country's biggest asset, its people – their warmth and welcoming attitude. The Bahrain Tourism and Authority also has recently launched seven representative offices with an aim of increasing the Kingdom of Bahrain's share of the international travel market. The offices are located in KSA, India, China, France, Germany, UK and Russia. Sally Sedky, Marketing & Tourism Promotion Directorate, said "it's the culmination of our efforts to develop an integrated strategic approach towards elevating the industry by attracting investors and providing a suitable environment to incubate tourism projects. Our strategy is based on four pillars ‘awareness, attraction, access and accommodation."
Within its efforts to boost the tourism sector, the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority have invested in a number of projects that aim at highlighting and developing the island›s tourist potentials and ultimately place Bahrain on the international map of travel. Manama was declared as the Capital of Gulf Tourism 2016, the announcement came during GCC Tourism Ministers meeting, as part of the ongoing endeavors to boost internal tourism among GCC states. Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority has created a year-long calendar of events to promote the Kingdom as one of the main tourist destinations in the region.
Predicting the businesses in 2017, Sally said: "We are working on developing a calendar of events with international partners. In terms of accommodation, there are currently 17,000 rooms, as of 2015, and BTEA is going to work on enhancing that to 18,700 by 2018. Since, awareness and marketing are crucial to a successful tourism strategy, the representative offices will assist with promoting Bahrain as an ideal destination in order to increase the flow of tourists."
Meanwhile, Bursa in Turkey is an important destination with its historical, touristic and religious places as well as its varied shopping facilities both for domestic tourists and foreign tourists. Incoming tourists from Saudi Arabia is rapidly growing each year and it is a pleasure to host our guests with all of our entities related to tourism, makes us more motivated for the following years.
Yunus Fatih Kadiroğlu, Deputy Secretary General of Bursa Eskişehir Bilecik, said "Bursa›s geographical structure is an important tourism destination with its important tourist attractions which will attract tourists from Riyadh. Culture, thermal, winter, nature, gastronomy and Adventure tourism opportunities will be the top trends in Bursa as it was in the past years. In World Heritage City Bursa, where you can enjoy the history in UNESCO protected sites, in a very short period of time, you might be enjoying nature and ski in Uludag (Olympos Mountain) after a 20 mins of cable car travel. With its tourism variety, Bursa welcomes you ‘four seasons' for a holiday." As Bursa being the first capital city of the Ottoman Empire and the village of Cumalıkızık having a 700 year history, in 2014, Bursa was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status with its 8 sights under headline "Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the Birth of the Ottoman Empire.
Besides this, Bursa is the one and only city from Turkey which is a member of "European Historic Thermal Towns Association". Thermal springs are widely available and serving for thermal cure and wellness. — SG
