Representative image: A travel agent on the Royal Mile offers a currency exchange service in Edinburgh Scotland on June 25, 2016 (AFP)
Welcoming the Ministry of Economy and Commerce’s call for the establishment of more travel and tour offices, investors and entrepreneurs attached with the sector have observed that growing population and trend of inbound and outbound tourism demanded more service providers.
They also noted that the selection of right location for travel and tour office and solid business plan were needed to make new facilities successful.
An employee of a travel office in Doha appreciated ministry’s move of boosting the sector but he observed that some parts of the country were already oversaturated. “In some parts, the travel and tour offices have more concentration than required. Therefore, new businesses should be launched in those areas lacking the facility,” he said.
The ministry too in its recently released data about the number of people being served per office has indicated that Al Khor and Dakira are the least served, geographically, with 101,015 people per office.
Mohammad Babar Khalil, an entrepreneur and CEO of Network Solutions, said that Doha represented opportunities for tourism/travel expansion on several fronts. “Qatar is evolving as a final destination for some world-class events such as the 2022 World Cup and all of its peripheral businesses and developments require more travel offices. It is also becoming a hub for inter Middle East travel.”
“Additionally developing state-of-the-art medical facilities in Qatar represent a burgeoning new market for medical tourism possibilities as has been seen in many Central European countries. The main difference being the availability of high-tech facilities with relatively low travel cost. This is another segment for growth,” Khalil said.
Travel and tour operators like Ali bin Ali Travel, Cleopatra Travels, Avens Travel and Tours, Regency Travel and Tours, Darwish Holidays, Doha Holiday Travel and Tourism, Dnata Travel, Cozmo Travel are fully utilising various social media platforms to promote their business.
The ministry had advised the companies to use social media among other marketing tools to promote the business. “As your customers are families, individuals, retired persons, students, tourist groups, and businessmen, you need to approach them through online monthly bulletin, social media and create database for the customers,” it had said.
Currently various travel and tour operators are offering different outbound tourism packages to a number of destinations. The number of active companies providing inbound tourism services is not as big as expected, according to the ministry’s released statistics.
Abdul Rehman Sajid who runs “365 Adventures” company and is providing opportunities to residents as well as foreign tourists to explore Qatar said that the people were not investing in local tourism services due to lack of creative ideas. “Yes there is a lot of potential in inbound and local tourism industry but it is inactive only due to lack in creative ideas,” he said.
Sajid thinks that only desert safari is not enough to make the business successful. “It is a niche market; we offer fascinating yet inexpensive products like archaeological tourism, etc. Soon we are bringing hot air balloons. The age of conventional offers is over,” he noted, adding that for promoting inbound tourism, companies would have to explore hidden treasures in the cultural beauty of Qatar.
The ministry had stated that offices conducting local tourism were listed among the most “inactive” with 14 offices and three offices dealing inbound tourism.
