68 December 2011 BTM “I’d say we are doing better in comparison to the spring and summer earlier this year, but recovery is a very slow process. Now is usually the peak business season and that’s been a norm for decades. Average occupancy at five-star hotels this time of the year usually ranges between 70 to 80 per cent, but we’re far behind this year,” he notes. Mohamed became the first Bahraini and Gulf national to attain the position of general manager in a five-star hotel in 1980. Since retiring from Bahrain Hotels Company (BHC), now Gulf Hotels Group (GHG), he heads Air Transport and Tourism Services (ATTA), a consultancy that advises, carries out research and acts as a facilitator in areas of tourism, travel, hospitality and air transport. At ATTA, a substantial part of his business comes from organising and managing events, conferences and technical exhibitions. Looking back, 2011 will be remembered as a year of pain for Bahrain’s hospitality industry, which witnessed a drop of 30 to 40 per cent in its annual turnover as international arrivals nearly froze for most part of spring and summer. Besides dealing an economic blow, the slump has had a negative impact on Bahrain’s reputation abroad. Through the major part of this year, Mohamed has been fielding queries from apprehensive clients abroad who want to know how safe the destination is before they decide on holding their events. “There remains this negative perception about Bahrain internationally and it’s something we cannot control. The most effective step the government can take to kick-start 2012 on a positive note would be an intensive image-building campaign, promoting Bahrain as a financial hub and a secure investment destination. The EDB has recently been arranging road shows and visits to the US and some European countries, where it has been successful in attracting some new projects to Bahrain. This effort should be appreciated by all and we need more of these. This needs to be a continuous exercise; merely booking some slots on BBC, CNN or other news channels will not serve the purpose,” he opines. Events like the GCC Games and Jewellery Arabia might help bring visitors to Bahrain, but the Kingdom should aim for bigger international events if it wants to make a comeback on the business and investment map. Once overseas visitors have been in Bahrain, Mohamed believes they will be the Kingdom’s spokespersons abroad, since word of mouth publicity works best in this business. There's no denying the fact that since the incepton of King Fahad Causeway, Bahrain has been receiving at least three to five million visitors a year, be it the Saudis or the expatriates living in Saudi, complimented by the rest of the GCC countries, which use the Causeway to visit Bahrain. "Unfortunately, this captured market has now been affected by the turmoil in Bahrain. The priority here is to recapture this market due to its importance and proximity," he points out. The hospitality and tourism sector is a crucial dimension of Bahrain’s economy — a factor that not only impacts the Kingdom’s ability to generate trade and investment, but international goodwill as well. An industry that was already hard-hit by the economic downturn three years ago, tourism was hammered further by the turmoil of earlier this year. As business events and conferences finally start to pick up towards the end of the year, weekends are fairly busy again with GCC travellers slowly but not surely coming back to the Kingdom. Mohamed Buzizi, a veteran of the local hospitality industry, would like to think there’s been a recovery, but what concerns him most at this point is that Bahrain has not rolled out its PR machinery yet. annualreview Awaiting a Makeover Bahrain is on the road to recovery as the year draws to a close, but there remains the bigger challenge of improving the Kingdom’s image internationally, in order for the hospitality sector to flourish. Mohamed Buzizi
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