Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) hosted a meeting with meetings’ organizers in the international federations and associations along with a number of leading Qatari institutions as part of the Authority’s efforts to promote the State of Qatar as a leading destination in hosting business events.

In a statement released Wednesday, QTA said that the organizers who participated in the meeting, represented the international federations that are looking for hosts for their conferences and meetings scheduled to be held during the period from 2019 to 2024. These federations include the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), International Society of Endocrinology (ISE) and the International International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA).

The meeting was organized at the Sheraton Hotel and Resort in order to provide the representatives of these associations a model of one of the conferences’ facilities owned by the State of Qatar and that equipped with the latest technologies to host the world’s largest events and to meet with leading Qatari institutions such as the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), Qatar Financial Center (QFC ), Sidra Medical and Research Center and the Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar.

Director of Exhibitions at QTA Ahmed Al Obaidli expressed his gratitude for the positive role played by the Authority in bringing together international associations and the representatives of leading Qatari institutions in various fields, such as education, sports and arts.

These meetings, he said, will further support the status of Qatar as an ideal destination for hosting conferences and events due to the strong correlation between the activities of these federations and the Qatari market.

QTA is intensifying its efforts to attract international associations to establish its activities in Qatar, especially after the national strategy of the tourism sector in the country has placed tourism business and recreation as a top priority during the next five years, as it is estimated that international conferences which attract thousands of participants can generate as much as $50 million in revenue to the host country through spending in many sectors such as hospitality, transport and retail.

In the hospitality sector, Qatar currently has more than 20,000 hotel rooms which are expected to increase significantly in the coming years. In the travel sector, Qatar Airways has direct lines to more than 150 destinations and has one of the best fleets in the world.

The mission of QTA is to consolidate the status of the State of Qatar as a leading destination combining the authenticity of the past and the splendor of the present for the peoples of the world to explore its tourist attractions in the fields of culture, sports, business and family entertainment.

In 2014, the Authority launched the National Tourism Strategy, which aims at diversifying Qatari tourism products and enhancing the contribution of the tourism sector to the national economy by 2030. In 2017, a new phase of this strategy was launched to set out the growth prospects that the tourism sector is expected to witness during the next five years (2017-2023).

Since the launch of the first phase of the strategy, Qatar has received more than 10 million visitors and the role of tourism has been enhanced in the national economy as one of its supporting tributaries. The total contribution of tourism (direct and indirect) to the country’s GDP has increased to 6.7%

Source: Fana News