Qatar Airways, Qatar Duty Free welcome tennis champs

Qatar Airways and Qatar Duty Free (QDF) are pleased to sponsor the QatarExxonMobil Open 2019 tournament on its 27th edition taking place at theKhalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha, from today.The Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2019 tournament, one of two ATP World Tourevents held in the Middle East, hosts many of the world’s best tennisplayers including world number one Serbian tennis player, NovakDjokovic. Qatar Airways Senior Vice-President Marketing and CorporateCommunications, Salam al-Shawa, said: “Qatar Airways is thrilled tobring the world’s top tennis players to Qatar to compete at thestate-of-the-art Khalifa International Tennis & Squash complex.Being the Official Airline Sponsor of the world renowned QatarExxonMobil Open 2019 tournament is a major highlight on Qatar’s sportingcalendar and marks a great beginning to the start of the new year.“We continue to support the emergence of sports in Qatar and being thebridge to welcome world champions to our country. Our longstandingsponsorship of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open tournaments each year shows ourcommitment to the Qatar 2030 vision to become a global sportsdestination. We look forward to showcasing our world-class hospitalityand wish all the players the best of luck.”Qatar Duty Free Vice President Operations, Thabet Musleh, said: “QatarDuty Free is once again proud to sponsor the Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2019tournament. “Sport brings people together and we are delighted to be able tocontribute to bringing this significant global sporting event to peoplearound the world. We have participated in the Qatar ExxonMobil Open formore than 10 years and we are committed to supporting the Qatar 2030vision.  We look forward to hosting visitors in our booth at the publicvillage for some entertainment before and after the matches, and towelcoming players and spectators alike through our home and hub HamadInternational Airport. We wish them a successful tournament.” Qatar Airways and Qatar Duty Free will mark their presence at thetournament by hosting special booths, offering visitors a taste of theiraward-winning services. The Qatar Airways booth will feature aninteractive green screen where tennis fans can get their photos printedin virtual backgrounds such as upcoming destinations and on an aircraft.The QDF booth will feature a guessing game accompanied by a photoopportunity, visitors will have to guess the number of branded balls inan acrylic box and share it on social media for a chance to win prizesoffered by Qatar Duty Free. In May 2017, Qatar Airways announced a groundbreaking sponsorship dealwith FIFA, which saw the award-winning airline become the OfficialPartner and Official Airline of FIFA until 2022. The partnership, one of the biggest sporting sponsorships in the world,will give Qatar Airways extensive marketing and branding rights at the2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar. The agreement also sees Qatar Airways become the Official AirlinePartner of the 2019 editions of the FIFA Club World Cup, the FIFA U-20World Cup, the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, andthe FIFA eWorld Cup.The airline has an existing sponsorship strategy with premier sportingclubs around the world. Qatar Airways recently revealed multi-yearsponsorship agreements with several sports entities, which includesbeing official airline sponsor of CONMEBOL professional footballcompetitions across South America for the next 4.5 years including theCopa CONMEBOL Libertadores, Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana and the CONMEBOLRecopa.In addition to the tennis, Qatar Duty Free has also sponsored theCommercial Bank Golf Masters since 2009 and, this year, extended itssponsorship of this sport to the annual TFWA conference in Cannes whichwelcomes more than 3,000 duty free and travel retail brands and 500international exhibitors, reaching over 2,000 key executives from majorlandlords and duty free retailers.Qatar Duty Free was awarded ‘Airport Retailer of the Year’ at the 2018DFNI Global Awards. In April, the leading airport retailer wasrecognised at the PAX International Readership Award, when Qatar Airwayswon ‘Best In-Flight Duty-Free Program’ for the Middle East and Africaand was acknowledged as an industry leader for its outstanding in-flightduty-free service, which is operated by Qatar Duty Free.The national carrier of the State of Qatar is one of the world’sfastest-growing airlines, with a modern fleet of more than 200 aircraftflying to over 160 business and leisure destinations across sixcontinents.