UAE investors behind Bahrain’s $492m tourism investment

DUBAI: Bahrain ranked first in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) for attracting the highest tourism capital investment in 2020, according to the fDi Intelligence Tourism Investment Report 2021.
Last year, major investments from UAE-based property developers helped Bahrain’s tourism sector remain buoyant and created jobs during the worst ever period for the global tourism industry, according to Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).
Bahrain secured $492 million of tourism capital investment in 2020, mainly made up of investments from global property developer Emaar Properties and real estate developer Eagle Hills, the board said.
Capital investment into MEA last year decreased 82 percent from 2019, dropping to $1.6 billion.
The board said the number of tourism jobs created in the region also experienced a similar decline, decreasing from approximately 17,400 in 2019 to 2,800 in 2020.
Despite the pandemic, Bahrain ranked first in MENA for the number of tourism jobs created in 2020 and second for the number of tourism FDI projects.
Prior to Covid, Bahrain was attracting around a million visitors a month on average and the tourism sector contributed around 7 percent to GDP.
As the first economy in the GCC to diversify away from oil, the kingdom has positioned its tourism offering to cater for a broader set of visitors through new attractions, hotels, F&B, and retail.
During the pandemic, the country continued developing its strategy to transform its tourism sector, allocating more than $10 billion to tourism infrastructure projects, including the $1.1 billion modernization of its international airport. More recently, Edamah, the real estate arm of Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, also announced several new upscale property projects in the country.
Accor, a hospitality group with over 400 hotels, Minor Hotels, which has a portfolio of 527 hotels and resorts, and Hilton DoubleTree unveiled plans to launch new properties in the Kingdom. Bahrain is now home to global hotel brands including Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Rotana, Intercontinental, Wyndham and Sofitel.
Anticipating a rebound in tourism numbers, Bahrain is growing its portfolio of five-star hotels and is set to have around 9,300 rooms by the end of 2022.