The delegation comprised 20 industry partners including Qatar Airways, Katara Hospitality, Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, various destination management companies, and members of the hospitality sector.
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A delegation from the office of Qatar's ambassador to the UK, led by first secretary Jassim al-Moftah, visited Qatar Tourism’s stand on the opening day, where he met with the various partners exhibiting from Qatar.
The Qatar pavilion showcased key developments and initiatives from the destination, while building connections between international travel trade and members of the tourism industry.
Over 100 meetings were held by Qatar Tourism’s sales, marketing, and public relations teams to negotiate and conclude partnership agreements to promote the offerings.
Berthold Trenkel, chief operating officer of Qatar Tourism commented: “We have a host of exciting new initiatives to announce this year, starting with our biggest promotional campaign to date, “Experience a World Beyond”. A number of new hotels, theme parks, retail outlets and major leisure projects have recently opened or are set to launch in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, when we will welcome the world to experience the country and all its offerings.”
Qatar Tourism launched “Experience a World Beyond” on the opening day of WTM.
The campaign targets 17 top visitor source markets for Qatar and features nine characters designed with CGI technology.
The characters will bring images of Qatar to life for audiences across major cities in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Turkey and the US as well as on the Visit Qatar website and mobile application, launched recently as part of the entity’s digital transformation.
With the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 just a year away, Qatar Tourism revealed its short-term plans for the next year as well as its long-term vision of targeting 6mn international visitors by 2030.
Spread over 609 sqm, the Qatar pavilion at WTM featured huge video screens wrapped around the entire pavilion playing Qatar Tourism’s recently released “Experience a World Beyond” advertisement, as well as digital towers and tables.
There was also a huge screen where visitors used gesture control to have a 180-degree immersive tour of Qatar.
Models of the eight stadiums which have been built for the FIFA World cup were on display, with video footage of Qatar’s journey in winning the World Cup bid.
With Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix scheduled from November 19 to 21 this year, an F1 simulator was in the pavilion.
Qatari heritage was also on full display with a whole cultural section of the pavilion where visitors were able to take away their name or a gift, in Arabic, handwritten by a calligrapher.
The heritage area was surrounded by Qatari desert roses and a souq of spices and dates, available to guests to sit in and have their photograph taken.
Since its first edition in 1980, World Travel Market London facilitates £2.8bn in travel and tourism industry deals and has around 5,000 exhibitors from 182 countries and regions and more than 51,000 participants attend this annual event to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry trends.