+ A
A -
CATHERINE W GICHUKI
DOHA
The recent easing of the COVID-19 restrictions, easing of quarantine restrictions for GCC, and speedy vaccination drive has helped bring customer traffic to the Mall of Qatar (MoQ), the mall’s General Manager Emile Sarkis has said.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event, Sarkis said the of easing of the COVID-19 restrictions has had positive impacts on the retail market.
“As a large number of the adult population is fully vaccinated and the government has started vaccination of 12-year-old children, this will ensure everyone can go out and enter any premises after showing their Ehteraz status. It will make people feel safe and comfortable in a gathering.”
According to him, they have started seeing increased footfall in malls.
“Normally, in the mall business worldwide, not only in Qatar, if you don’t have entertainment or restaurants, the footfall will be minor because people will come to the mall and just shop and leave. But once the entertainment section is open, people can mingle, dine and spend more time which will definitely improve the traffic and economic circulation in the country,” he said.
Sarkis added that the easing the restriction on travel to Qatar from the GCC has also brought a very positive impact.
“For us at the Mall of Qatar, we have witnessed it because we have the Al Rayyan Hotel from where we have seen a lot of people from other GCC countries shopping and dining at the mall. For sure, we want to see more and as long as the situation gets smoother, hopefully we will be having the tourism we used to see before the pandemic,” he said.
Talking about his take on Qatar’s recovery, Sarkis said Qatar the vaccination for all the population and the preventive measures have been well implemented and are helping the country to bounce back.
“Other countries went for full lockdown but Qatar’s strategy was very smart and we never went for full lockdown and still the cases have been very low,” he said.
Sarkis felt that economically, Qatar is performing better than most countries in the region and he expected the retail sector to have a strong recovery.
He said, during the past four months, more than 30 new stores opened in the Mall of Qatar.
He said that all the ministries like the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Public Health have been doing a great job in monitoring all the COVID-19 measures to make everyone feel safe at the mall.
“We added the ministries’ initiatives with our professional experience to keep the environment safe and ensure everyone adheres to all the measures. From the beginning, it was checking the safety, Ehteraz, masks, putting the disinfection machines everywhere and keeping our security alerted 24X7 to make sure that everyone is adhering to these measures,” he added.
DOHA
The recent easing of the COVID-19 restrictions, easing of quarantine restrictions for GCC, and speedy vaccination drive has helped bring customer traffic to the Mall of Qatar (MoQ), the mall’s General Manager Emile Sarkis has said.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event, Sarkis said the of easing of the COVID-19 restrictions has had positive impacts on the retail market.
“As a large number of the adult population is fully vaccinated and the government has started vaccination of 12-year-old children, this will ensure everyone can go out and enter any premises after showing their Ehteraz status. It will make people feel safe and comfortable in a gathering.”
According to him, they have started seeing increased footfall in malls.
“Normally, in the mall business worldwide, not only in Qatar, if you don’t have entertainment or restaurants, the footfall will be minor because people will come to the mall and just shop and leave. But once the entertainment section is open, people can mingle, dine and spend more time which will definitely improve the traffic and economic circulation in the country,” he said.
Sarkis added that the easing the restriction on travel to Qatar from the GCC has also brought a very positive impact.
“For us at the Mall of Qatar, we have witnessed it because we have the Al Rayyan Hotel from where we have seen a lot of people from other GCC countries shopping and dining at the mall. For sure, we want to see more and as long as the situation gets smoother, hopefully we will be having the tourism we used to see before the pandemic,” he said.
Talking about his take on Qatar’s recovery, Sarkis said Qatar the vaccination for all the population and the preventive measures have been well implemented and are helping the country to bounce back.
“Other countries went for full lockdown but Qatar’s strategy was very smart and we never went for full lockdown and still the cases have been very low,” he said.
Sarkis felt that economically, Qatar is performing better than most countries in the region and he expected the retail sector to have a strong recovery.
He said, during the past four months, more than 30 new stores opened in the Mall of Qatar.
He said that all the ministries like the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Public Health have been doing a great job in monitoring all the COVID-19 measures to make everyone feel safe at the mall.
“We added the ministries’ initiatives with our professional experience to keep the environment safe and ensure everyone adheres to all the measures. From the beginning, it was checking the safety, Ehteraz, masks, putting the disinfection machines everywhere and keeping our security alerted 24X7 to make sure that everyone is adhering to these measures,” he added.
