Western foreign offices need to adjust their travel advisories to Bahrain because they are wrongfully giving the country a bad name, according to a visiting Australian businessman.

Bombardier quality engineer Garry Lucht said his team were due to come to Bahrain for business, but were hesitant because of the travel advisories coming from Australia, Britain and America.

However, after arriving in Bahrain on Sunday, Lucht is convinced that Bahrain is a safe place for travellers and the advisories need to be re-evaluated.

'Our problem is not in Bahrain, it's the foreign offices of Britain, America and Australia, which say do not come to Bahrain unless it is extremely important to do so,' Lucht told our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN).

'From our company's point of view my trip here had to go all the way to our president for approval and we were briefed by the chief security officer before coming here.

'We wondered what we were coming out to, they made us think like it is Libya, but I've only seen lovely people and the only police I saw were two traffic police cars chasing bad drivers.

'The foreign office is giving Bahrain a bad name.'

This is Lucht's first trip to Bahrain, but he said other divisions in his company had previously done business here.

He is in Bahrain on a four-day trip to inspect fibreglass parts that are being made for his company by BFG International.

Lucht said he would recommend any foreign company to come to Bahrain for business.

'I think it's fantastic, the quality of infrastructure and the ease of coming through the airport and we found it very easy to do business here,' he said.

'We came out here very apprehensive and it's not like that at all.

'It seems very stable and how it probably is normally, there is no military presence or heavy police presence that I could see.'

The Australian government advise its citizens to reconsider their need to travel to Bahrain at this time due, to what it describes, as the uncertain security situation and threat of terrorist attack.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office advise against all but essential travel to Bahrain until further notice.

The US Department of State states that all travellers to Bahrain face increased scrutiny from Bahraini authorities and that the government has refused to allow some US citizens permission to enter the country.

It urges US citizens to follow the latest security guidance and to avoid travel in specific parts of Bahrain in order to avoid planned demonstrations.

Meanwhile, the Philippine government's travel ban on newly-hired Overseas Filipino Workers from immigrating to Bahrain is still in place.

It does not affect those already employed and people on holiday.

The Philippines Overseas Employment Administration introduced the restriction in February due to safety concerns amid the height of the unrest.

His Majesty King Hamad has since announced that Bahrain's State of National Safety will be lifted on June 1.

It led the Philippine Embassy to ask Manila for the travel ban to be cancelled, but a decision has yet to be made.

Similar travel bans issued by the governments of Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan have already been lifted.-TradeArabia News Service