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CATHERINE W GICHUKI
DOHA
QATAR Tourism Authority's (QTA) overseas offices are performing well despite the sluggishness witnessed in the global tourism sector, a senior official has said.
The QTA has offices not only in the GCC region but also in the USA and several countries in Europe.
Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of a recent event, QTA Chief Tourism Development Officer Hassan al Ibrahim said,"The offices are doing well. Qatar is positioning itself as a global destination. Therefore, we have offices in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Singapore, the USA and the GCC. We are increasing the number of offices and soon we will be announcing the opening of more offices between now and the end of the year."
Ibrahim, however, added that Qatar received 1.7 million visitors during the first six months of this year, which is lower than the number of visitors received during the same period last year. He explained,"We are doing our best to increase the number of visitors and to recover from the sluggishness being witnessed in the tourism industry, globally. It is a challenging job as we are well past mid-year already."
According to Ibrahim, QTA was aggressively promoting cruise tourism and the step could go a long way in boosting tourism industry in Qatar. Besides, easing of visa processing system could bring in more visitors from across the world, he added.
"We are opening up. So, when the global dynamics shift, we can benefit from it. In 2016/2017, we are expecting the number of passengers to be around 50,000 on cruise ships."
