DOHA: A number of employees of Qatar’s tourism promotion agency have been armed with judicial powers to conduct raids on hotels, tourist facilities and exhibitions to check violations and book them.
The Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) said in a statement yesterday that the Public Prosecution Department had conferred judicial authority on several of its staff.
Calling them judicial commissioners, QTA said staff members have been imparted special field training for the purpose. The Ministry of Economy and Commerce, the licensing authority for all businesses in the country, has ratified the decision of the Public Prosecution, said the statement.
The ‘judicial commissioners’ have the authority to pursue offenders of the provisions of Law No. 6 of 2012 regulating tourism, and Law No 7 of 2013 governing exhibitions. The move will help ensure that hotels, tourist facilities and exhibitions in Qatar fully comply with the provisions of the laws and regulations issued from time to time.
The move will make sure that hotels and other tourism sector institutions adhere to international tourism standards and practices. “We are working to upgrade Qatar’s tourism sector to global standards,” said the statement. “There is no doubt that the decision is a milestone in QTA’s history,” said the agency’s chief tourism development officer, Hassan Al Ibrahim.
The jurisdiction of these officials includes spotting violations, pinpointing and gathering the evidence needed for investigation and trial.
“The decision will be a real push for the efforts aimed at promoting the tourism sector,” said Al Ibrahim.
The move is part of QTA’s efforts to develop the tourism sector’s human resources and economic aspects which will help to raise the sector’s contribution to the country’s economy (GDP).
QTA said it adheres to the norms of UNWTO (the World Tourism Organization, a UN agency) Global Code of Ethics for Tourism.
Many hotels and tourist facilities here signed the Code last year which stresses the importance for hotels and tourist establishments across the world to observe global standards. The Peninsula
