“The Pearl Festival, a first-of-its-kind event for Doha with many attractions including entertainment and food, is to be launched next year when the weather is cool,” UDC marketing and communications director Hussain Akbar al-Baker told Gulf Times.
Now in the planning stage, UDC is working with another body to prepare for the big event that would attract all ages, especially families and children.
As an iconic landmark in the country, the Pearl-Qatar is an ideal venue to hold such prestigious events, the UDC official said. Hosting “different continents all in one city”, it has Qanat Quartier, popularly known as “Qatar’s very own little Venice”; Spanish-inspired Medina Centrale; Viva Bahriya’s Moroccan charm; and Porto Arabia’s French Riviera concept.
UDC also aims to make the Pearl-Qatar a top family destination and a touristic landmark. In close partnership and co-operation with the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), al-Baker added that the Pearl-Qatar would again serve as a satellite venue for the Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF) next year.
He cited the success of the annual culinary celebration, which attracted a large number of local and foreign visitors due to the unique and increasing number of offerings in all three venues this year.
Around 200,000 visitors trooped to the Museum of Islamic Art Park, Katara – the Cultural Village and the Pearl-Qatar, beating the 170,000 record last year.
Besides land transport, QTA also featured water taxis to ferry visitors from MIA Park to the two other satellite venues during the week-long festival.
“As a leading Qatar shareholding company, we are closely working and co-ordinating with QTA, taking into consideration all their initiatives such as the QIFF,” al-Baker said.
“We welcome all kinds of events that they propose to us, we have a long-term partnership on different things,” he said.
“We try to co-operate as much as possible, they have these events OnQatar, the web portal of QTA, we always feed them with what is happening at the Pearl-Qatar, so this is cross marketing.”
The Pearl-Qatar, UDC’s flagship project, has been hosting several activities and events for families and children regularly, including the “Family Fun Friday”, Qatar Foundation’s National Reading Campaign, and various Eid celebrations, among others.
Related Story
