Bahrain

With the aim of creating a niche for itself as a top student destination in the Gulf, Bahrain hopes international students will fill up to 35% of all university places over the next decade, according to projections from the national education plan. Until recently, the kingdom had been one of the region’s leading providers of education to...

Good hotels and visitor attractions are in no short supply in Bahrain. The island boasts 18 five-star hotels, including names such as Ritz-Carlton and Novotel, and in recent years chains such as Rotana and Four Seasons have entered the market. In addition to sporting fixtures such as the Bahrain Grand Prix, the country has natural attractions...

Known in ancient times as Dilmun, the inspiration for the Garden of Eden, and more recently as Ard Million Nakhla, or the Land of a Million Date Palms, Bahrain has been welcoming visitors to its shores for centuries. More recently, the island was the first country in the Gulf to develop a modern tourist industry, when it established itself as...

New investments in the hospitality sector and efforts to raise Bahrain’s international profile should drive tourism growth in 2016, broadening the kingdom’s appeal as a destination for travellers from the region and further afield. With Manama named the “Capital of Gulf Tourism 2016” in early January by the tourism ministers of the GCC, a...

Bahrain’s National Tourism Strategy extends from 2015 to 2018 and envisages a change of strategy for the industry. The kingdom emerged as the first shopping, leisure and service centre in the Gulf in the 1970s, and consequently began to attract high weekend traffic from across the region.

After a year characterised by falling global prices for both crude oil and aluminium, there is a surprising degree of optimism in Bahrain’s economy. With major investments in its infrastructure being financed by the Gulf Development Fund and Aluminium Bahrain’s (Alba) sixth pot line moving ahead, there is a sense that Bahrain is busy, from its...