The 207-room Park Inn by Radisson Hotel, Bahrain, one of 11 properties in the Kingdom’s two-year pipeline, will add a mid-market offering alongside the luxury Diplomat Radisson Blu.

“Bahrain is a very diverse market so the hotel is going to attract a wide range of short and medium stay business people to the property,” Willis comments. “I also think it will go down well with local residents, attracting a lot of business to the food & beverage outlets”.

Pulling in customers to F&B facilities is crucial during periods of unrest according to Colliers Head of Hotels (MENA region), Filippo Sona, who comments: “Although hotels might have low occupancies and so theoretically have less guests, people tend to spend more in F&B outlets because they are safe places to be.”

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De Groot agrees, adding: “If you can’t achieve the occupancy numbers then as a hotel you have several other options at your disposal to generate revenue.”

Having begun discussions with the owners of the Domain Bahrain in July 2011 after the troubles started, De Groot claims that the concept was “a social club with a boutique hotel inhabiting the building rather than the other way around”.

He explains: “50% of our keys are suites and the rest are rooms, which is much higher than you typically find in luxury hotels which are normally 15-20% max. The ratio of space allocated to F&B is much higher with a total of nine social spaces in the building, further emphasising the club aspect of the Domain.”

Rahim Abu Omar, general manager of 45-year-old Bahrain establishment, The Gulf Hotel, similarly admits that food and beverage is a major focus for the property, with around 60% of revenue generated by F&B. Omar explains the 16 outlets of the “destination hotel” are “important to the social scene of Bahrainis” and that yet another will open this summer.

Diversifying food and beverage offering is just one opportunity for Bahraini businesses to maintain and perhaps grow their market share according to Sona, however.

He adds that this period of unrest provides a good opportunity to think about refurbishments, especially for aging hotels, adding that this could extend to an eventual “relaunch of the whole Bahrain tourism scene, and growth for those hotels that are repositioning themselves”.

Gulf Hotel is one property which is doing so, with Omar revealing that this summer the oldest of the three hotel towers will close for a three-month renovation, and a refurbishment to the hotel apartment buildings will be done gradually over two years because “demand is high” and Omar wants to limit disturbance to guests. “This shows the confidence we have in the industry,” he adds.

Grasping the kingdom’s natural market share is also going to be of key importance.

“Saudis are going to be the backbone of tourism within Bahrain for many years to come,” says Hewett. He explains that the key success factor will be diversifying Bahrain's leisure offering to really attract Saudi nationals, and that this can be done by “harnessing the cultural and natural environments which already exist”.

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