Speaking at a lunch on Monday, BTEA chief executive Shaikh Khaled Bin Humood Al-Khalifa, said Hills Balfour would now act as UK representatives with its office being one of seven new representation bases worldwide.

The announcement comes as the destination launches a two-pronged strategy to promote itself in the UK.

Both individual and group press trips are being offered while a programme of fam trips scheduled for this year will ensure trade representatives also learn about Bahrain first hand.

Meanwhile, a national advertising campaign will highlight its various tourist attractions, from the island’s many beaches to its two Unesco World Heritage sites.

Al-Khalifa said the new marketing campaign was being designed to drive more visitors from the UK, which in 2016 was the third biggest source market with 277,087 visitors, to Bahrain.

The campaign is part of a worldwide strategy that aims to grow the number of visitors to the country from 12.3 million in 2016 to 15.2 million in 2018.

Al-Khalifa said: “The idea is to bring more inbound tourism from across the UK into Bahrain.

“Now tourism will be in the forefront of the (Bahraini) government’s vision. One of the things I always look to highlight is when British Airways had its first trip on the Concorde it was to Bahrain.”

He added the island could be promoted both as a single-holiday destination as well as a stop-over location for those venturing further afield.

He said: “We’re promoting both. For a strategic location being in the middle of the Gulf and the flight connections we have we are certainly looking at it as a stop-over destination.

“We’re looking at the numbers and what’s the ideal way of doing that.”