The country has a hotel pipeline of 13 properties, with 3,000 hotel rooms and is predicting that tourism will contribute $1 billion by the end of the decade.

According to the country’s Economic Development Board, Bahrain’s tourism sector was expected to grow further in 2015, after a rise in 2014 visitor numbers of 10 million – an 11% increase compared with the previous year.

Wyndham Hotel Group has four properties under development that will open in the next 12-18 months, while Emaar Hospitality Group will launch four hotels under its Address and Vida brands by 2018.

Luxury Asia-based brand Anantara will also open on Durrat Al Bahrain in 2018. Nadege Noblet-Segers, ATM exhibition manager, said: “Bahrain is making significant investment into its tourism-related infrastructure, including a much-needed $1.1 billion airport expansion, and also has plans to expand its exhibition centre to accommodate large-scale events across all categories.

This year’s ATM will provide an excellent platform for the kingdom’s tourism and hospitality community to highlight their future vision for the country.” Bahrain-based companies confirmed to participate at ATM 2016 include the Kingdom of Bahrain Ministry of Culture Tourism Sector, Ramee Grand Hotel & Spa, 24x7rooms.com, Gulf Hotel and Sabre.

ATM will expand into an additional hall as Reed Travel Exhibitions looks to add to its record visitor attendance last year, with the 2015 event seeing a 15% year-on-year increase in attendance of more than 26,000. The number of exhibiting companies also increased by 5% to 2,873, while business deals worth more than $2.5 billion were signed over the four days.