Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) continued its 5-city targeted promotional tour to Europe with an event in Milan today,  joined by a distinguished delegation from the hospitality, culture, sports and leisure sectors in Qatar. The roadshow is a new initiative launched by Qatar Tourism Authority to promote Qatar as a premier business and leisure destination to the major cities in Europe. The slogan of the campaign is “Experience 48 hours in Qatar: Your Business is Our Pleasure”, promoting Qatar as destination for meetings and incentive travel, as well as for stopovers.

The campaign kicked off in Madrid last week, and continued through London and Paris, then Milan and Munich. To further this promotional campaign, each of these cities has convenient and direct flights on Qatar’s national carrier, Qatar Airways, the first 5-star airline in the Middle East.

Qatar Tourism Authority has been given the mandate by the Qatari government to organize, enable and supervise the tourism industry in Qatar. Under this mandate, QTA promotes Qatar as an upscale destination at international travel shows targeting the lucrative meetings, exhibitions, incentives and luxury travel industries.

Mr. Ahmed Al Nuaimi, Chairman of Qatar Tourism Authority said: “As a complement to our participation at international travel exhibitions, Qatar Tourism Authority has organized this roadshow throughout Europe to deepen our ties and to build new relationships with the tourism and travel professionals in Milan and the other major cities on the tour. Through this roadshow we aim to build networks facilitating future business between Qatar and Italy.”

Qatar Tourism Authority and its delegation held meetings during the day with professionals from the business travel industry in the greater Milan area. The event ended with an evening reception which was attended by the Qatari Ambassador in Rome, H.E. Sultan Saad Al Mirikhei, officials from the tourism industry as well as other VIPs. 

In a separate meeting, the State of Qatar, represented by Qatar Tourism Authority, and the Republic of Italy, represented by the Italian tourism ministry, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for tourism cooperation between the two countries.  The MOU was signed by Mr. Al Nuaimi and Ms. Michela Vittoria Brambilla, the Italian tourism minister. The signing ceremony was attended by Qatar’s ambassador in Rome and other officials. The MOU states that the two sides will create circumstances to establish long-term tourism cooperation in planning and development.

Qatar has made significant investments domestically and internationally to encourage cultural, educational, sport and leisure tourism to complement business tourism industry in the country. The government of Qatar has set aside US$17 billion to develop Qatar’s tourism infrastructure over a 5 year period, including the construction of new hotels, resorts and other tourism facilities. Nearly 2000 luxury hotel rooms came on the market in 2009. An additional 4000 rooms are scheduled to be added by the end of 2010.  The iconic Museum of Islamic Art, designed by I.M. Pei, has put Qatar’s capital city of Doha firmly on the culture scene in the Middle East. Other major projects scheduled to open in the near future include the Qatar National Convention Centre, which boasts 40,000 square meters of state-of-the-art exhibition space and the New Doha International Airport, which at completion will be able to handle 50 million passengers.

 Accompanying QTA on the roadshow are many of the organizations in Qatar that play a key role in building the country into a top destination for business travel. Participants include Qatar Airways, the Qatar National Convention Centre, Museum of Islamic Art, the Ministry of Culture as well as a representation of the top luxury hotels and tour operators in Qatar.