Qatar has emerged as top destination for global tourists. Recently Doha was picked by The New York Times in their ‘52 Places to Go in 2019’ list. Doha also made into Forbes’ top 15 places to visit in 2019. This proves the growing stature of Qatar as a tourist destination among international travellers.
The Forbes report also noted that Qatar has become more and more self-reliant since 2017, after the blockade was imposed by siege countries. According to Euromonitor 2018, Doha was ranked among the Top 100 City Destinations worldwide.
Qatar is featuring in the list top tourist destinations because of the steps taken by concerned authorities in the past.
Last year was a turning point for Qatar’s tourism sector. One of the major developments of 2018 was establishment of Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC). QNTC made significant efforts in diversifying visitor source markets and promoting Qatar as an attractive tourism destination.
In 2018, six representative offices were opened in three of the world’s largest visitor source markets - China, India and Russia.
In November 2018, QNTC launched Qatar’s first global destination campaign. Under the tagline ‘Qatar. Qurated for you.’, the campaign brings to life Qatar’s focus on tailored visitor experiences that celebrate its heritage, and is being rolled out in eight languages across 15 existing and targeted priority markets targeting 250 million travellers around the world.
In line with the Next Chapter’s focus on developing and boosting the sector’s professional skills and competitiveness, QNTC partnered with the Union of International Fairs (UFI) to deliver an event management training programme which resulted in the certification of 20 professionals in the business events sector.
In addition, QNTC launched its tour guide training programme which resulted in 137 tour guides who speak 20 different languages being officially licensed.
In 2018, Qatar won the rights to host six major business events to be held between 2019 and 2022 with a prospective number of participants reaching up to 2,400.
Local exhibitions continued to attract visitors and participants from Qatar and the world. In this regard, more than 1,000 brands took part in the Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition, the Arabian Fashion Exhibition and the Qatar Motor Show, attracting more than 65,000 visitors in 2018.
With proactive steps taken by concerned authorities, Qatar is set to become most sought after travel destination for tourists across the globe.
