The National Tourism Council (NTC) yesterday unveiled Qatar’s first global destination campaign aimed at positioning Qatar as an attractive destination for authentic and bespoke experiences.
Under the tagline ‘Qatar. Qurated for you.’, the campaign brings to life Qatar’s focus on tailored visitor experiences that celebrate its heritage, and will be rolled out across 15 existing and targeted priority markets.
The campaign was formally launched at a ceremony held under the patronage and in the attendance of Prime Minister and Interior Minister and NTC Chairman of the Board H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani.
The campaign will run across print, TV and digital platforms in eight languages including Arabic, English, French, Italian, German, Russian, Turkish and Mandarin, and target 225 million travellers in 15 countries including Russia, India, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Turkey, UK, Ireland, USA, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Scandinavian countries.
To mark the launch, an advertisement titled ‘Qatar. Qurated for you’ was officially rolled out in three languages including Arabic, English and Mandarin at a ceremony held at Sheraton Doha Hotel yesterday. The one-minute video depicts some of the most prominent tourist spots in the country including Souq Waqif, the Corniche, the Museum of Islamic Art, Sealine and Inland Sea, National Museum of Qatar, Doha Skyline and East-West/West-East sculpture in Brouq nature reserve.
Qurated will leverage partnerships with global television networks such as CNN International, Al Jazeera Network, BeIN, Digiturk and SkyTV. Outdoor advertising in major airports and popular squares as well as social media will also be utilised for the campaign.
Through captivating visuals that offer glimpses of Qatar’s authentic tourism offerings, the campaign is designed to make Qatar a top-of-mind destination.
The campaign’s launch comes at an exciting period of growth and development for Qatar’s tourism sector. Just a few weeks earlier, Qatar Tourism Authority and the Permanent Committee for Conferences was converted into the NTC. The new governance structure paves the way for the implementation of key initiatives across the public and private sectors to develop solid tourism infrastructure and deliver exceptional visitor experiences.
Both the revised governance model and the global promotion campaign are critical components of the sector’s newest strategy launched in 2017 (The Next Chapter of the National Tourism Sector Strategy). These foundational developments are further complemented by the country’s revised visitor visa policies which have earned it the ranking of most open country in the Middle East - and the eighth most open in the world - according to UNWTO’s recently updated visa openness rankings.
Hassan Al Ibrahim, NTC official, said, “We’re proud of this campaign and the process followed to develop it, which took into account input from our partners in both the public and private sectors, whether in Qatar or internationally. This process is representative of our ethos as an industry, which is deeply rooted in the spirit of collaboration and partnership to deliver exceptional experiences at every touchpoint of the visitor’s journey. We look forward to bringing the spirit of Qurated to life, on people’s television screens, in airports around the world, and eventually here in Qatar where the world is welcomed to experience our authentic heritage and forward-looking vision.”
Rashed AlQurese, NTC representative added,”Qurated is more than an advertising campaign: we’ve closely examined what Qatar offers as a destination to bring into sharp focus the essence of the Qatar experience, and how it can be tailored to each of our visitor segments.” He added, “To deliver bespoke end-to-end experiences to our visitors while achieving true impact for the industry, NTC is partnering with some of the world’s most popular travel platforms such as TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet so that prospective visitors can curate their next visit to Qatar from the moment they read about the destination, through to making reservations and enjoying the destination’s various cultural and natural attractions.”
