The proactive partnership between Qatar’s public and private sectors is a key element that could boost the country’s Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events (MICE) industry, a top hospitality official has said.
To establish itself as a top MICE destination in the region, Rotana Hotel Management Corporation (Rotana) president and CEO Omer Kaddouri said Qatar must rely on both its public and private sectors to attract tourism and MICE-related activities to the country.
“Qatar has everything. It is building itself and has become stronger and stronger. But the MICE industry is also a business. If you want to keep market share, you have to work hard for it.
“If you want more market share, you have to go over and beyond to fill up the convention centres, encourage the setting-up of international conferences here, and to prevent people here from taking business away from the country,” Kaddouri told Gulf Times in an interview.
This was echoed by general manager Joseph Coubat during the recent opening of City Centre Rotana Doha. He stressed that Doha “is taking the centre stage” and has transformed itself into a conference hub for cultural, sports, and other types of tourism-related activities.
“These activities are paving the road for Qatar to play a key role in the meetings, incentives, conferences, and events scene,” Coubat said during the event.
On increasing Qatar’s tourist arrivals, Kaddouri stressed that it is important to “maximise every segment,” especially the leisure industry.
“The leisure segment needs to be driven. Today, Qatar is known to be a predominantly corporate city. People are coming here for business. After business, people are coming here for conferences. And after that, people are coming here for leisure thus, Doha needs to create a sustainable, successful hospitality platform,” he explained.
He added: “Investors are spending billions of dollars to create hospitality platforms. As long as there is a strategy in place and the government believes in all of these platforms to create occupancy, it would keep investors happy. Investors are also relying on the governments where they are pouring these investments to help them along the way. One cannot work without the other.”
Kaddouri also noted that Qatar is developing itself into a hub for all types of business models. As a hub, he stressed that these business models need to be sustainable in order to be successful, especially after the staging of the FIFA World Cup in 2022.