By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter

The Qatar Summer Festival’s hotel promotion received a positive response both from local and foreign visitors, a senior official of Qatar Tourism Authority said yesterday.
“Many hotel guests availed the special packages developed by 26 members of Qatar’s hospitality industry for the month-long celebration,” QTA’s public relations and communications director Faisal al-Mohannadi explained.
“The hotel promotion, an addition to this year’s festival, was good and a lot of people liked it,” al-Mohannadi said, adding that the hotels and hotel apartments also offered 50% discount in their restaurants and spas.
While the festival attracted tourists from parts of Europe, a significant number came from neighbouring GCC countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE.
A number of hotel managers noted that besides foreign tourists, many Doha residents also availed these special packages and discounts during the month-long festival.
Al-Mohannadi said QTA seeks to improve the staging of its annual festival by taking both negative and positive feedback from visitors through various websites and social media platforms such Facebook and Twitter, among others.
“We consolidate and study the information we gathered from our audience so we can improve the next festival,” he added. “We asked them what entertainment they want, which kind shows they like, and which promotions they are looking for.”
QTA has been promoting Qatar as a top family and high-end destination as part of its strategy to attract more tourists from different parts of the world.
QTA’s 2015 mid-year tourism performance summary showed that occupancy rates across all hotels reached 75% for the first half of the year.
The report said this figure is 2% higher compared to the data for the same period in 2014. However, average room rates dropped slightly by 2% for 4-star, 2-star and 1-star hotels.
About the overall performance of the festival this year, al-Mohannadi stressed that new additions such as the live tickets concerts and the Doha Comedy Day made it better than last year.
He said they are also willing to support initiatives such as transforming the Doha Comedy Day into Doha Comedy Festival next year.
“It all depends on the producers if they want to make it something bigger, we are happy to support them. We are supporting all our co-organisers,” al-Mohannadi said.
He also announced that the last raffle draw for the shopping promotions will be held today (Thursday) at Villaggio Mall.
QTA will be giving away the last two of the eight cars – a BMW 7 Series and a Mini Cooper to the winners this evening. At least QR90,000 cash is also at stake at the draw.
About the Entertainment City at the Doha Exhibition Centre, the QTA official pointed out that changing the festival’s length of celebration from six weeks last year to one month this year gained positive results.
“We put more fun-filled games, attractions, rides and entertainment shows at DEC which attracted a large number of visitors,” he said.




Venue for live concerts shifted to QNCC
Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) has announced that Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) will host the live concerts scheduled today and tomorrow instead of the multipurpose hall at Al Sadd Sports Club (Ali bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena).
Due to some technical reasons, QTA said the venue was transferred to QNCC, a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.
In a press statement, QTA stressed that “those who had already purchased tickets do not need to make any changes except enjoy the concerts at QNCC.” Doors will open at 7pm and ladies’-only seating areas will be available.
The concerts, which will be held in the QNCC theatre, take place on the final weekend of Qatar Summer Festival 2015.
Rabeh Saqr and Balqis Fathy will be entertain the crowd today while Asala Nasri and Saad Lmjarred will take the centre stage tomorrow.
Tickets can still be purchased at https://tickets.virginmegastore.me/  or at the Doha Exhibition Centre.