Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) will add a new festival to its calendar of events during 2017, it was announced yesterday.
The festival will be organised by QTA, in collaboration with public and private sector partners, to reinforce Qatar’s position as a preferred family vacation destination within the GCC region.
To be announced next month, the new festival will focus on Qatar’s burgeoning retail sector, which has proven to be an important part of tourism spending in the country. According to figures from Qatar’s Tourism Satellite Account – a system approved by the United Nations for establishing the impact of tourism on a country’s economy - shopping represented a bigger portion of tourism spending in 2014 than hotel bookings or food and beverage, bringing QR6bn to the country’s economy.
QTA organises a number of country-wide events including Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF) and Qatar Summer Festival (QSF). Figures for March and August 2016, when these events were held this year, showed an increase in visitor arrivals, encouraging QTA officials to explore new events that support the performance of the country’s tourism sector.
