(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Qatar Tourism Authority's (QTA) annual Framework Summit yesterday gathered 120 private sector stakeholders from local hotels and other industry suppliers and representatives from its five overseas offices to come up with a detailed "Global Strategic Marketing Plan" for 2016.
Led by its head office executives, the event focused in mapping out plans to further promote key attractions in Qatar and attract more tourists from the GCC and other regions.
"Our aim is to create a strong and positive brand positioning and identity that resonate in our key overseas markets," said QTA's chief marketing and promotions officer Rashed al-Qurese, who also cited their achievements in the past three quarters of this year in his speech.
The official noted that QTA has been working closely with private sector partners and tourism stakeholders to promote the country abroad.
The new QTA office in Singapore (for Southeast Asian markets with special focus on Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia), which opened in December last year, had seen further strengthening of bilateral relations between Qatar and Singapore.
Traditionally, he noted, Qatar was not being sold by tour operators and their travel agencies until QTA started building relationship with them.
"We provided familiarisation trips, showed them the country and then introduced them to the hotels," he said. "When they started selling Qatar, we did joint marketing campaigns to their clients."
From 27 tour operators two years ago, al-Qurese noted that they now have 42 in Qatar. QTA focused a lot in increasing these numbers which featured the country's top attractions.
"Once you have that distribution network, this is when you start doing some of the consumer drive and activations," he said. "We invite a lot of travel, tourism and lifestyle media from different publications for specific segments."
QTA had also done brand alliances and partnerships, as well as public relations activities for consumers.
"Once we generate interest there is already the distribution channels and everything we do has a specific call to action attached to it," the QTA official pointed out. "We are in competition with everyone else and we try to come up with innovative solutions."
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