At this year’s Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, representatives from Bahrain’s Institute for Pearls and Gemstones set out to prove a point: no algorithm can replicate the centuries-old skill of finding a pearl inside an oyster shell.
Field researchers Mohamed Slaise and Ahmed Ramadhan staffed the Bahrain pavilion at ATM 2026, cracking open oysters by hand in front of crowds gathered around their kiosk.
Slaise, who works with the institute known as Danat, said the abundance of oysters along Bahrain’s coastline means the real value lies not in the resource itself but in the expertise required to work it — expertise he argues artificial intelligence cannot substitute.
The live demonstrations drew steady queues of visitors eager to watch pearls extracted in real time. Ramadhan worked an oyster open with his bare hands, cutting through the muscle to retrieve a pearl before holding it up for onlookers.
Many attendees then had the pearls or the empty shells turned into keepsakes such as chains and keychains. Slaise noted the team had pulled three sizeable pearls the previous day — a strong haul even by the standards of divers with decades of underwater experience.
The exhibit also served as a reminder of the industry’s deep roots. Bahrain’s pearling tradition, once the backbone of the Gulf economy before oil was discovered, has continued even amid regional instability, with the institute emphasizing that safety protocols now guide every expedition.
Tourists can book guided diving experiences online, joining working divers as they collect oysters at sea, offering visitors a hands-on link to a trade that predates the modern Gulf states by thousands of years.
The showcase comes as artificial intelligence tools increasingly dominate conversations across the travel and tourism sector, with exhibitors at ATM 2026 using the Bahrain pavilion to argue that some traditions — reading the sea, judging an oyster by feel, and the patience built over a lifetime of diving — remain resistant to automation.
