Event tourism the spur for economic growth in Bahrain

• Sports City due next year
• Drive to host more conferences
• Hope business visitors will stay longer

Bahrain has affirmed the strategic importance of the Sakhir Sports City development in a growing focus on event-related tourism as a primary engine of economic growth.

The project, near the country’s Formula 1 circuit, is slated for completion in 2025 and expected to cost more than BD100 million ($266 million). 

It will encompass a stadium for 50,000 spectators, a range of other athletics and training facilities, a mall and hotels.

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Sports City is just one component of a larger push by the Gulf’s only island nation to expand and diversify its event offerings and attract more outside visitors, as competition, and collaboration, for tourism dollars increases across the region.

It has also built a massive new exhibition centre, the 18-month-old Exhibition World Bahrain, one of the largest such centres in the region at 95,000 sq m with 10 halls.

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The International Monetary Fund estimates that Bahrain will grow at 3.6 percent in 2024, with growth increasingly relying on the performance of the non-oil sector. 

The nation remains the most heavily indebted in the GCC, and government debt sits at 124 percent of GDP.

With Bahrain on track to receive more than 14 million visitors a year by 2026, according to a recent report, tourism contributing some 7 percent to last year’s GDP and Manama anointed GCC tourism capital for 2024, the government is investing heavily to harness the sector’s expansion.

A $1.1 billion passenger terminal capable of accommodating 14 million travellers a year opened in the capital in July 2022.

As part of revamped collaboration among GCC countries in the tourism sector, Bahrain also signed an agreement with its neighbour Saudi Arabia last summer to jointly promote themselves as a single destination. A causeway connects the two nations and a second one is in the pipeline.

“We are working together with the GCC on building packages and offerings as a group, so that more tourists can come to Bahrain for two-three nights, go to Oman, go to Saudi Arabia,” Sarah Buhijji, the chief executive of Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority, said at an industry conference in Dubai in May. 

“The means of access you have from here is very easy. You can drive to Saudi Arabia in 40 minutes, and also fly in 40 minutes to anywhere in the GCC,” she said.

Bahrain is also seeking to increase the number of international conferences and sporting and entertainment events it hosts each year.

Growth strategy

Stephen Flanagan, partner and head of valuation and advisory for real estate consultancy Knight Frank in Mena, said: “New leisure offerings will also aim to persuade business visitors to extend their stays. 

“The announcement of the Sports City is in line with the objectives of the wider tourism development growth as part of Bahrain’s economic growth strategy.”

Hospitality can also prove an important anchor for the nation’s otherwise struggling real estate sector, helping to energise construction at several master plans in the pipeline, Flanagan said.

A few high-end hotels have opened in Bahrain in the past 18 months, such as the Jumeirah Gulf of Bahrain Resort, Conrad BFH and Onyx by Rotana. More are under construction, including the Shangri la at Bahrain Marina and two Minor Hotels resorts at Bilaj Al Jazayer. 

“It’s a fairly small market, but now you’re starting to see a few more international brands,” Flanagan said. “On a standalone basis, these types of assets will struggle, but if it’s looked at at the GDP level, bringing people in, and the bigger picture of catalysing these developments, I think they may make some sense.”