The sinking of a passenger ferry off the coast of Bahrain late on Thursday evening could damage the country's tourism sector.
Authorities and entrepreneurs hold great prospects for the sector, as evidenced by some high-profile projects.
Incidentally, the trip around Bahrain's shores was organised by a firm meant to celebrate achievement related to an ongoing project in Manama.
Nass, Murray and Roberts organised the trip for their employees to celebrate completion of the concrete structure of the Bahrain World Trade Centre.
Among other things, the project involves construction of two 50-storey structures within the Sheraton hotel complex.
The tragedy rekindled memories of yet another catastrophe that hit Bahrain in August 2000. A Gulf Air plane arriving from Cairo crashed into the sea not far from scene of the Thursday's ferry disaster.
Several large investments are underway on numerous tourism projects in Bahrain. Local and regional investors are developing tourist sites around Bahrain.
Progress is being made on the Durrat Al Bahrain project after Kuwait Finance House purchased a 50 per cent stake in the project from Dallah Al Baraka group of Saudi Arabia.
Bahrain's government owns half of the ambitious $1.3 billion project. Another big project is Al Areen. Gulf Finance House and Bahrain's government equally own the $750 million complex being constructed near the site of Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) at Sakhir, southwest of Manama.
BIC hosted Formula One Grand Prix 2006 season opener in March. Partly capitalising on motor racing activities, in turn associated with the influx of visitors, numerous hotels in Bahrain have moved to add and renovate facilities and rooms.
Other hotels such as Sheraton, Gulf and Radisson SAS have decided to expand their facilities as well.
Arcapita, an Islamic financial institution, is working with International Golf Course Company on developing a golf-themed residential project.
Known as the Riffa Views project, the joint venture is estimated at $300 million. It is designed to develop some 900 luxury villas and includes redevelopment of the existing Riffa golf course.
The hospitality sector contributed 2.3 per cent to Bahrain's GDP in constant prices in 2004. The figure shows a growth of 18 per cent over 2003. Still, the sector brings indirect benefits to other GDP components notably construction.
The tourism sector is envisaged to provide employment opportunities for Bahraini nationals. Currently, expatriates occupy most jobs at hotels and other tourism related projects.
However, training is being extended to Bahraini nationals to take over hundreds of jobs. More than 14,000 Bahraini nationals have registered as jobless in the newly launched National Training and Employment project. The programme offers training and jobs opportunities for unemployed nationals.
The Bahrain government intends to put shares of numerous tourism projects into a planned holding company. The firm will be capitalised at $5.3 billion, and will oversee the government's commercial assets.
These include its stakes in Durrat Al Bahrain, Al Areen, the Southern Area Development Company, Bahrain Family Leisure Company and Seef Properties.
The ferry disaster is being blamed on overloading of the chartered ship. But what is sure is that nationals of 16 countries were aboard the ferry when it overturned.
Certainly, tourism officials have to work hard to overcome horrifying images of the dead and injured people being carried away from scene of the disaster.
Only time will tell to what extent the tragedy has damaged Bahrain's tourism sector.
- The writer is Assistant Professor, College of Business Administration, University of Bahrain
