السياحة البحرية في البحرين : الآفاق و الاتجاهات

Abstract EN

Tourism industry is one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the global economy.

Gulf countries, especially the Kingdom of Bahrain attempt to diversify its economy and reduce dependence on oil industry, taking in consideration, that tourism is one of the most important sources of income that create greater job opportunities.

Bahrain is an archipelago of 36 islands, with a total land area of 765.3 Sq.km, and a coastline of 510 km.

It is located in the middle of the Arabian Gulf where its islands are surrounded by shallow, warm, crystal clear water and supporting rich fisheries, coral reefs and oyster beds.

As an island, The Kingdom of Bahrain needs to develop its marine tourism which comes in line with recent worldwide demands and trends in tourism sector.

Such development contributes and enhances marine communities, which actively rely on rich ecosystem such as coral reefs, mangroves and offshore islands that contain varieties of biota uniquely adapted to local environment which, if properly exploited, will diversify tourist attractions.

In fact, tourism in Bahrain is a rapidly growing sector in recent years.

For example in 2011, 5.57 million tourists visited Bahrain and spent an estimated 979.3 million US dollars, which represents 8 % of the GDP and created 15000 job opportunities.

Local Bahraini manpower, however; represents only 30 % of the total work force.

In the present study, brief description of the most critically important habitats such as rocky, sandy and muddy shores, coral reefs, sea grass beds, mangroves swamps, in addition to Hawar islands has been given.

Data was collected by means of questionnaire and interview.

412 questionnaires were analyzed.

Findings demonstrated the importance of the tourist’s concerns in planning process of tourist sites.

The study also shows that variations in perception and participation rates resulted from variations in the socioeconomic characteristics of the tourists.