TravTalk Middle East Online Magazine
Countdown to the biggest sporting event in the world this year ends on 20th November, as 32 best footfall teams in the world fight for the FIFA World Cup title in Qatar until 18th December. Qatar Tourism has a much bigger role to play considering that they are getting the best ever support from across the globe as the host country.
Shehara Rizly
The next four weeks will be the most eventful for not just Qatar but the rest of the GCC, as the biggest sporting event in the world – FIFA World Cup – takes place in the Arab country. More than 1.5 million football fans are expected to visit Qatar to watch the sports event, while over 5 billion people will watch the matches on various screens. Qatar Tourism has been given the opportunity to take the event to the next level.
Role at the World Cup
Bertold Trenkel, Chief Operating Officer, Qatar Tourism, shares, “We have two tasks that are related to the World Cup, we are supporting the supreme committee in many initiatives, one of them is training, which is a big programme, where so far over the last four weeks we have trained alone 25,000 people across hospitality and other government functions. We are also supporting with basic information, the Hayya card, the entry ticket to the country, which replaces any visa process, but the Hayya card mobile app is powered largely by Visit Qatar content. So, when you use the Hayya app you will find all the content that you will find in the Visit Qatar mobile app. We are doing many other things like we are publishing a new guide book that will not be on shelves but in the hotel rooms by November, we are also publishing a new tourist map to optimise the visitor experience. We are also promoting all the events in destination before and during the World Cup. Outside of Qatar, Qatar tourism will run a destination campaign to make people aware of all the things they are missing out. “This will be the most watched FIFA World Cup ever in the history of mankind, so that is a big opportunity and we are capitalising on that one. With that springboard of 5 billion eyeballs that are watching the games, we are hoping to convert many of them and get their interest levels up to their consideration list and hopefully visit Qatar in 2023 or the year after,” Trenkel said.
