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Tribune News Network
Doha
A new campaign to promote Qatar in the Italian market was recently launched.
The marketing and promotion campaign comes as part of Qatar National Tourism Council's (NTC) strategic partnership with Alpitour Group, Italy's largest tour operator and provides Italians with exclusive packages for stays at either the St. Regis Doha or Sealine beach.
This move comes as part of the initiatives to boost Qatar's position as an attractive destination in Italy, where the destination is already making a good influence.
Since 2011, visitor arrivals from Italy have increased by 70 percent. to build on that growth, NTC started operating a representative office in Milan in 2016. In 2017, Qatar welcomed more than 37,000 visitors from Italy, a two percent increase on the previous year.
Rashed al Qurese, NTC Chief Marketing and Promotion Officer, said:"We are confident that we will attract more visitors from Italy with our authentic cultural offerings combined with luxury and adventure, including our new Al Enna Project for desert and camping experience as well as our new cruise tourism offerings."
The campaign promotes Qatar as the Alpitour group's new main destination with the Sealine Beach Resort added to the Francorosso Sea Club portfolio and St. Regis Doha included in its Sea Diamond collection.
Both resorts combine sea, desert, culture and adventure - offering an all-inclusive holiday package for Italian tourists and event managers. Also exclusive proposals will be offered to the top spender bracket of the market through Alpitour's premium brand Viaggidea.
Andrea Cortese, Alpitour chief marketing and digital officer, said:"The constant focus on improving our portfolio, widening both our and our customers' horizons, has always been part of our way of dealing with things, and Qatar is without a doubt an important bet for our group.
Qatar Airways and Discover Qatar as DMC also supported the campaign offering direct flights from Milan, Pisa, Rome and Venice.
In addition to arriving to Qatar by air, Italians were among the top three nationalities to visit the country onboard a cruise ship in the 2017/18 season.
To further boost Italian cruise visitor arrivals, NTC (formerly known as Qatar Tourism Authority) recently signed an agreement with the Italian Costa Cruises to place Qatar on the company's winter itinerary as well as to cooperate in designing special promotion packages for their passengers. With 43 planned voyages, this season is set to be the biggest yet for Qatar, bringing 140,000 visitors to Qatar's shores.
The NTC-Francorosso joint campaign will have a mix of electronic and digital media as well as Out-of-Home branding in Milan, Lazio, Lombardy, Veneto and Tuscany, together with a specific landing page on Francorosso's website. Francorosso also ran a month-long promotion by offering free excursions to tourists who booked a holiday (flight + a minimum stay of 7 nights) in the Sea Club Sealing Beach or in the Sea Diamond St. Regis Doha.
