Tourism Minister Fatima Al Sairafi has affirmed that Bahrain offers a lot of opportunities and initiatives to investors in the tourism sector aimed at developing the tourism product, raising the volume of tourism investment and increasing the sector’s contribution to the growth of Middle East economies.

She was speaking at a conference on ‘Investment in Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges of Sustainable Finance’, on the sidelines of the regional meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, in Muscat.

The conference aims to discuss opportunities and challenges related to financing the tourism sector in a sustainable manner, raise awareness on the importance of directing financing towards tourism projects that contribute to economic and social growth, explore new innovations and solutions in the field of tourism financing and enhance co-operation between the public and private sectors to achieve sustainable development goals in the sector.

Ms Al Sairafi highlighted the investment environment that characterises Bahrain and the systems and legislation that implement it, which is continuously developing to suit local and global economic conditions and requirements to encourage tourism projects.

The minister said that Bahrain is witnessing a significant rise in the number of tourism licences for various projects and services, including the golden licence granted to two tourism projects out of nine. This licence provides incentives and simplified services to foreign and local companies that have large-scale investment projects in the kingdom.

The minister said that such initiative and facilitation stimulate investments and enhance job creation within the framework of the kingdom’s financial and economic reforms.

Addressing the first session of the conference titled ‘Stimulating investment through partnerships between sectors... A dialogue session: Effective partnerships in financing the tourism sector’, she emphasised the need to strengthen partnerships between the public and private sectors and financial institutions to stimulate investment in projects and provide a suitable and stable financial environment for investors in the sector.

She also highlighted Bahrain’s leading position in tourism investment, thanks to the efforts of the government and private sectors. “These close national partnerships highlight the direct interest in the sector and its ability to attract capital and harness it to serve and develop tourism and attract local and international partners, in line with the Tourism Strategy 2022-2026.”

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