Bahrain is targeting the UK as its first major international market, aiming to grow both stopover and package-holiday traffic to the Middle East destination.
It will be the headline sponsor of Travel Gossip’s Travel Celebration, taking place in London on 25 March, using this as a launchpad to the UK travel trade.
“This is my way of announcing Bahrain to a big audience,” said Ian Scott, Business Development Director of destination management company Visit Bahrain, which has been tasked with opening up the UK market.
“This is something Bahrain has never done before, sponsoring a really big travel industry event, so we’re saying, look, we’re serious. This is one of the biggest events in the industry, so this is a big launch.”
Ian said Bahrain has made the UK ‘a priority market’. “It tried to open up the UK market pre-COVID, a long time ago, but this new attempt is based on the excellent airlift we now have from the UK and the UK’s love of the Middle East,” he added.
Both Gulf Air and British Airways offer direct flights from Heathrow, and Gulf also flies from Gatwick and Manchester.
“Everything is now in place for another push into the UK, the only issue we have is nobody in the UK really knows Bahrain, not consumers or travel agents,” added Ian. Do they even know it’s 33 natural islands? Probably not. Do they know how to get there?
“We’re starting from scratch, but we’ve got this fantastic country and I want everyone to know about it.”
What are Bahrain’s unique selling points?
“Maybe people have been to Dubai a lot and they want something new, but we are not like Dubai, or Abu Dhabi,” said Ian.
“We don’t have guys driving around Porsches, Ferraris or Lamborghinis, it’s just people in their normal cars going about their business. So you’re coming into a very, very different place than anywhere else in the Gulf.
“It’s unlike anywhere in the UAE, unlike Qatar, unlike Saudi. So that’s an important message to get across, it’s a slow pace of life, but we do have the international hotels you see elsewhere, like the Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Raffles, InterContinental and Sheraton.
“Many of these are beach hotels, for example, Ritz-Carlton has a beautiful hotel on the beach and Four Seasons is on its own island. And we have great nightlife, Bahrain isn’t dry; if you want to go on a bar crawl, you can go on a bar crawl, there’s even Irish bars, they’ve got outside space, some are on roofs, there are some nightclubs, some have got DJs, some have live bands. At the beach clubs, it feels like you’re in Ibiza.
“There’s also 5,000 years of history in Bahrain, which you can see very clearly, not just in museums but all around you, in forts built by the Portuguese, ancient burial mounds and other archaeological sites, so there’s that culture and history you don’t see so much in other Middle East countries.
“You can go horse-riding around a fort, and then go down to the beach. There are really nice tourist experiences here.”
How else is Bahrain educating the UK trade?
Bahrain recently hosted six UK travel agents, none of whom had previously sold Bahrain. You can see their reaction to the destination in this video.
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Also, Bahrain is taking part in Travel Gossip’s roadshows and working with agent consortia such as Advantage, TTNG and Travel Counsellors on agent training. He is also planning to organise more fam trips, including four with Advantage this year, a large one with TTNG and one with Travel Counsellors, possibly in 2027.
Ian recommends selling Bahrain as a standalone and as a stopover destination. “A good selling point for agents is that if clients are going to the Maldives, book with Gulf Air and they can do a two-night stopover in Bahrain.
“Once they’ve spent two nights here, they’ll come back for longer because we have beaches and islands like the Maldives, we have over-water villas and luxury accommodation, people just don’t know about it yet!”
Packages are only available with a small handful of UK operators, including Travelpack and Major Travel, but Ian expects two more to be added to the list shortly. Also, agents can package accommodation using a number of bed banks, and Visit Bahrain will shortly be opening up its own bed bank to UK agents.
What else is Bahrain doing in the UK?
“We have to also get the message across to consumers so they know about Bahrain before they go to a travel agent,” explained Ian.
To do this, Bahrain will shortly launch a social media campaign, using local influencers in Bahrain filmed in museums, archaeological sites, souks and other interesting locations giving an insight into their world, their culture, their country.
“That will reach 20 or 30 million people in the UK on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, and the call to action will be to visit a travel agent or they’ll be taken to a site where they can find out more,” said Ian. “First we need to tell them about Bahrain, get them interested, then tell them how to book.”
Find out more about the Travel Gossip Travel Celebration, including how to book tickets here.
Read Travel Gossip CEO Bruce Martin’s review of Bahrain on Travel Gossip’s new luxury publication, Indulge.
