Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Secretary- General of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), speaking during the Sports Tourism Workshop at Aspire Academy in Doha yesterday. PICTURE: Kammutty VP
BY RIZWAN REHMAT
DOHA: The hugely popular one-day National Sports Day will be expanded to a week of fun activities to encourage a healthy lifestyle and attract more tourists to the country, the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) announced yesterday.
Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Secretary-General, QOC, made the announcement at the start of a workshop held in conjunction with Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) on what was day two of the Aspire4Sport Conference at the Aspire Academy.
“We have had elaborate discussions with QTA on this matter. We have decided that from next year the National Sports Day will not be restricted to one day of events. From next year, the National Sports Day will be a week-long feature of programmes and activities,” Sheikh Saoud said during his speech.
“We will work on the programmes while QTA will outline tour packages following discussions with Qatar Airways and the hotel industry in the country,” Sheikh Saoud added.
The week-long programme will start on February 5 and end on February 11.
The National Sports Festival week will see QOC, QTA, Qatar Airways, Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) and Qatar’s various hospitality industry stakeholders joining forces to promote the nation as a first-rate sporting destination
Now approaching its third year, Qatar’s National Sport Day is held on the second Tuesday of February and will now mark the culmination of a week-long sporting extravaganza.
QOC also highlighted the blue-riband events staged in Doha as a focal point to woo greater number of visitors to the country for the 2013-14 season.
Highlighting that Qatar already hosts around 40 annual international sports events annually, Sheikh Saoud said: “The National Sports Festival signifies the unification of QOC and QTA’s efforts to successfully promote and market Qatar as a sports tourism destination by catering to international and regional fans through all-inclusive promotional packages.”
Sheikh Saoud added: “Within the next eight years Qatar will host more than four world championships, such as the World Handball Championship in 2015, and hopefully we will grow the number of annual international events we host in Qatar to 50 by next season.”
Tourism packages are set to include airline flights, tourist visas, hotel bookings, entry tickets to sporting events and touristic excursions.
“When sport and tourism come together, we have a better chance at success,” H E Issa bin Mohammed Al Mohannadi, Chairman of QTA, said. “Qatar’s government has invested heavily in a world-class state-of-the-art sports infrastructure, notably the Aspire Zone. Our goal now is to work at joining our efforts to optimise the use of such infrastructure to boost Qatar as a sports tourism destination.”
THE PENINSULA
