Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) is moving one step ahead with its new plans to attract more visitors to the country by holding business events. QTA’s initiative of launching Brand Qatar yielded considerable mileage in the international arena despite the circumstances the country went through over the last 300 days after the unjust siege imposed on it by some countries. QTA highlighted in a recent report about the facilities and capabilities in Qatar to attract international exhibitions and conferences in which it succeeded tremendously in the last couple of years.
QTA expects business events as one of the four major sectors that will bring 5.6 million visitors by 2023. The business event sector witnessed a significant growth to reach 30% in 2017 from 2015. The presence in specialised international conferences and exhibitions helped the Authority in a major way to showcase Qatar’s facilities, tourism and logistics capabilities to the world’s leading companies and to enhance Qatar’s position as a leading destination for business events. The Authority also imparted various training programmes – locally as well as globally – to harness its plans and expertise in the field.
All these are under the effective leadership in accordance with the national strategy for the tourism sector, which was announced in its five-year plan last September. QTA’s last year campaign, Qatar Welcomes the World, has already drawn great successes in the recent past. New campaigns along with new visa facilitation measures have already started giving results.
It’s a remarkable achievement on the part of QTA for organising four major exhibitions in cooperation with several local companies, which were held on more than 49,000 sqm, with the participation of more than 980 local and international exhibitors, and 70,000 visitors visited the events during 2017. The growth of the business events sector during the past two years has contributed to the increase in the number of local companies specialised in the organisation of exhibitions and conferences to reach 13 companies in 2017.
It’s a welcome step that QTA has launched the first edition of the comprehensive guide for business event organisers in Qatar, both in paper and electronic formats, which includes information on Qatar, major attractions and tourism activities, a list of specialised companies and local suppliers, as well as various event facilities available in Qatar. The events calendar, which is a comprehensive guide that includes a list of all events and activities held in Qatar, is also available on the Internet in seven languages, including Arabic, English, Italian, French, German, Turkish and Chinese.
The new initiatives certainly will play a major role in achieving the government’s direction to develop the private sector and local businesses by enabling the home-grown companies to organise events on a global level. It will also boost the country’s infrastructure sector, and will develop hospitality and transportation sectors.
