DOHA: In a move that can give a major boost to tourism in Qatar, Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) is working on a plan to allow some transit passengers passing through Doha International Airport to visit key tourist destinations in the country.
A number of transit passengers of Qatar Airways will benefit from the scheme, once it is introduced.
“Any passenger travelling by Qatar Airways and has a transit of eight hours or less will enjoy a new product enabling them to visit tourist spots in Qatar and explore them,” QTA Chairman Issa Al Mohannadi told Qatar News Agency on the sidelines of the ITB exhibition in Berlin.
He added that QTA was working with Qatar Airways to finalise the scheme.
Meanwhile, Qatar has climbed one notch in rankings in the world travel and tourism competitiveness report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday.
Qatar is ranked second in the MENA region and 41st overall in the report. Qatar is up one place since the last assessment in 2011, in which it was ranked 42nd out of 139 countries and third in the MENA region.
The United Arab Emirates leads 15 countries in the MENA rankings, while Switzerland, Germany and Austria occupy the top three spots overall, in that order.
According to the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013, the ease of hiring foreign labour (ranked fourth) and quality of education were the driving forces enabling Qatar to find high-quality human resources (seventh) inside and outside the country. Qatar also has a high degree of customer orientation (fifth).
The report also indicated Qatar benefits from a safe and secure environment (21st), good ICT and tourism infrastructures (32nd and 37th, respectively), and excellent air transport infrastructure (23rd).
As far as sanitation, drinking water and presence of major car rental companies is concerned, Qatar has always occupied the top position.
Other areas in which Qatar figured in the top 15 ranks were transparency of government policymaking, international air transport network, sustainability of the travel and tourism industry’s development, reliability of police services, mobile broadband subscriptions, fuel price levels, and sports stadiums.
In order to further enhance the country’s travel and tourism competitiveness, Qatar should continue to improve its focus on environmental sustainability, the WEF report said.
The travel and tourism competitiveness index is based on certain strong criteria including environment sustainability, safety and security, health and hygiene, air transport infrastructure, prioritisation of travel and tourism, ground transport infrastructure, price competitiveness, human resources, tourism infrastructure, Information Communication and Technology, price competitiveness in the industry, human resources, natural resources and cultural resources.
