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CATHERINE W GICHUKI
DOHA
Inclusion of high-profile celebrities from around the world in the Shop Qatar festival activities serves as a means to promote Qatar as a tourist destination to other countries, an official of Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) has said.
The second edition of the month-long festival has welcomed celebrities like make-up artists Hanan Alnajadah and Joyce Bonelli, Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor Khan, as well as American duo and The Chainsmokers to take part in various activities.
Speaking to media persons in Doha on Tuesday, QTA Director of Festivals and Tourism Events Mashal Shahbik said the festival has met their expectations.
"We did not only end up having a big event in Qatar but we have had a marketing opportunity to promote the country as a tourist destination by bringing the celebrities to Doha. What we are trying to do is not only having events in Qatar but also having the legacy everywhere in the markets that we want to target," she said.
She reiterated that, for instance, the news about Kareena's visit to Qatar was widely reported by Bollywood and India which was a way of getting Qatar known. In addition, people seeing The Chainsmokers in Qatar did a lot in promoting Qatar as a major destination.
Shahbik said that the QTA's plan is always to come up with something new during each festival.
"This is a plan that we will keep on doing at every festival because we will be focusing on how each festival and the activities related to the festival can be seen clearly. We don't want to copy activities from the previous festival. We want each festival to have its own identity," she said.
According to her, this year's edition had themes on Arabian, Bollywood and International weeks.
"The idea behind the themes was developed based on the visa-free announcement that we made last August. As a continuity of that, we themed the weeks accordingly," she said.
Shahbik also said the organisers tried not only to focus on shopping and promotion but also other activities, especially the fashion industry.
"For instance, there were live demonstrations of how to make Indian accessories," she said.
She added that during the International Week, the festival featured the performance of The Chainsmokers in the Middle East for the first time."This was the first International Concert that QTA had organised and it is a big step because the initiative will attract international visitors to Qatar," she said, adding that with the concerts, they wanted to attract those who may not be interested in shopping.
She also said that the ticketing system has allowed the concerts to have the expected audience.
She said everyone in Qatar has been acting as an ambassador in promoting the country as a tourist destination.
The QTA official added that with just more than a week before the festival comes to an end and the last raffle draw takes place, sales and promotions are still going on in the participating malls.
According to her, QTA has collaborated with Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar for Exclusive Trunk Show.
"Collaboration is always a key in our successful events," she said.
On his part, Mall of Qatar PR and Events Manager Patrick Hage-Chahine said they were grateful to host local entrepreneurs at the mall as part of the festival.
Thirty pop-up shops have been erected at the mall where small businesses showcase their products and benefit from the high footfall generated by the festival.
