With current facilities booked up until 2009, the green light has been given for a new exhibition centre in Bahrain, which will also feature meetings and conference facilities.

Speaking to meetme, Debbie Stanford-Kristiansen, acting chief executive and director MICE, destination marketing & PR, Bahrain Exhibition & Convention Authority (BECA), said: “The reason we have been given permission for a new venue is because we are fully booked for 2008 and 2009 and have no availability in dates and venues as meeting facilities within hotels are also taken as is Bahrain International Circuit, which has been doubling as a venue as much as a racing circuit.”

The new 100,000-square metre exhibition centre will feature an auditorium, meeting rooms and breakout rooms. “This will allow us to bid for some of the international congresses in the association market,” said Stanford-Kristiansen.

“It will be open by 2011 and we are bidding for major association congresses in the mean time. We have won our first medical congress MEACO (Middle East & Africa Council of Ophthalmology) for March 2009,” she added.

The kingdom stands to greatly benefit from this congress with an estimated ecomomic impact of US$3 million with the added opportunity of bagging the World Ophthalmic Congress in 2012 for 14, 000 delegates.

Stanford-Kristiansen is confident that the necessary infrastructure will be ready and in place by then. “By the end of 2010, we have so many new hotels opening that we should be ready with our hospitality infrastructure. St. Regis, Salam Resorts, Raffles, Four Seasons, The Ritz-Carlton, Movenpick, Ibis, Sofitel, Kempinski are all coming to Bahrain and in some cases with their second property. Its exciting times for Bahrain,” she said.

© meetME