A fresh outlook

Qatar's emergence as a strategic destination for conventions and association meetings is underpinned by a prominent awareness of green issues and a rapidly developing infrastructure.

Although it is not everyone's cup of tea for a family holiday, when it comes to conventions and meetings, Qatar means business.

The corporate/business travel sector accounts for the vast majority of all travel to Qatar and has driven increasing visitor numbers since the founding of Qatar Airways in 1993 made Doha an important stopover for Middle East-bound business travellers.

The Qatar Tourism Authority recently decided to acknowledge the importance of the business events sector in the Gulf and became the Qatar Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (QTEA) to grow awareness of Qatar's role in this field.

"From a tourism perspective, the driving sector in Qatar is the corporate/business sector; 95% of the visitors to Qatar come for business, whether on an individual basis or attending a conference, meeting, or exhibition," explains QTEA chairman Ahmed Al Nuaimi.

"Because the focus of Qatar is to further develop the meetings, conventions and exhibitions secor, it made sense to create the Qatar Tourism and Exhibitions Authority. The leisure element is mainly generated in conjunction with the business travel, or sometimes as a stop-over to another destination."

QTEA is now responsible for managing the temporary new Doha Exhibitions Centre, which opened in February, and the Doha Convention Centre, which is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in 2010.

The latter will replace the Qatar International Exhibitions Centre, which was demolished in December to make way for the new facility.

The Doha Convention Centre will complement the iconic Qatar National Convention Centre, which is being developed by the Qatar Foundation, and is also set to open in 2010.

"To further expand this sector we need to increase the capacity from the hotels, venues, local operators and the general infrastructure, like the new airport which will open in 2010," explains Al Nuaimi.

"Several new hotels are being built and will open between the end of 2008 and the first or second quarter of 2009: for example the W Doha, Grand Hyatt, Shangri-La, Marriott Courtyard, Renaissance, Rotana, Hilton etc."

Qatar's hotel room capacity, which currently comprises some 7500 rooms, will be boosted by an additional 6000 rooms by the end of 2009, he adds.

"In the meantime, while the infrastructure is being developed, Qatar is increasing its level of awareness as the country is still very young."

QMDI

To help this process, the Qatar Foundation recently formed the Qatar MICE Development Institute (QMDI), which will act as a professional congress organiser (PCO) for inbound business as well as being responsible for attracting more major conventions and exhibitions into Qatar.

In this respect the company will be playing the role of convention bureau and PCO: "We are not the convention bureau but some of the functionality that we are doing is unusual in the sense that we are bidding for events," explains group managing director Matthew Meredith.

"We are bidding for them because the fact is that it is not being done by anyone else, but we realise the importance of having that function done, so yes, we are acting as a bidder and an organiser.

But Meredith stresses that QMDI will work with the local market to grow business, not against it.

"One of the things we don't want to do is create a monopoly, because the only way that Qatar will work long-term is if it is open competition and the market is completely open," he explains.

"The objective is to create an economic ecosystem that will build a sustainable MICE or business events sector. That is the priority in terms of our MICE development role."

As part of the Qatar Foundation, many of the events QMDI organises will come directly from Qatar Foundation-related activities or the government, he adds.

"We have got some of our own commercial activities but I would actively encourage international organisers to come in," says Meredith.

"We are talking to a number of organisers as joint venture partners but certainly I want the market to be open and be as competitive as possible."

Meredith says that Qatar's success as a destination depends on international business: "The local markets with their own rights are not strong enough to sustain the MICE sector," he explains.

"Look at the national development plans for the government - education, energy, science and tech, healthcare - they are all areas where they are looking to invest heavily. Obviously then, form our focus, they are the areas we will be initially looking at."

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