São Paulo – Bahrain, Oman and Qatar are the countries where Lynden tourism agency and operator wants to focus its efforts in 2020. Packages to Bahrain will be launched next March. The company has worked with destinations in the Middles East for 21 years and wants to diversify its operations.
“We have done some things with Oman for around three years. We worked hard on this destination with Dubai. Bahrain is new. We’re looking for a way to work with the whole Gulf at once. And, as tourism to Saudi Arabia has opened up, we’ve in touch with them to send some itineraries, too,” Lynden owner Kháled Fayez Mahassen told ANBA.
Mahassen is Lebanese, and his home country is the company’s flagship. It offers daily departures and ten-day packages to Lebanon. Now, the company plans on offering joint tours to smaller countries such as Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. “In Bahrain three to four days are enough. Qatar and Oman too. As for the United Arab Emirates, we usually do a week. So, touring that whole region in 15 to 20 days is enough,” Mahassen explained.
Bahrain
To its new destination, Lynden bets on the country’s heritage appeal. “There was a civilization there called Dilmun more than six thousand years ago. The Gulf doesn’t usually have this ancient history. Thus Bahrain stands out,” Mahassen stresses. To delve into this civilization, one stop is Bahrain National Museum, which holds a collection of contemporary sculpture exhibitions and ceramic art that covers the time of the Dilmun,
Along these lines, the businessman sees still another point that may draw Brazilians’ attention: the Portuguese influence on the Arab country. “There are several interesting places across the region. Surprisingly, the Sultanate of Oman and Bahrain have an Arab influence, so we tour fortresses from those times such as Bahrain Fort (pictured above),” he says. It’s the country’s main fortress and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The country also offers experiences such as a visit to a camel farm with up to 400 animals and a trip to the King Fahad Causeway – a 25-Km cross-sea bridge connecting Bahrain to Saudi Arabia.
On the other hand, Oman and Qatar must be worked together because of a strategic issue. “We have to do some workarounds because of the embargo against Qatar. We have to do Qatar first and then pass by the Sultanate of Oman, or ending in Oman and then Qatar,” says Mahassen, who has Oman as one of the few gateways to joint tours.
Return to Syria
Other news from the company is the resumption of trips to Syria. The businessman says that there’re still some troubles with the destination, but they are limited to the delay for issuing visas. The company started working again with cities such as the capital, Damascus, as well as Maaloula, Homs and Latakia.
To keep working in the region, the businessman believes in the importance of spreading information on the Middle East in lectures such as the one he’ll give in AVIESP, a tourism exhibition to run in March in Águas de Lindóia. “Lynden has gone through several crisis in both Brazil and the Middle East. We’ve diversified the destinations so that, when one country faces troubles, we can keep working on others,” he finished.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
