It is a concept unique to Doha providing a luxurious experience in a traditional setting carved out of the typical Middle Eastern culture. With the onset of a busy tourism season, Sharq Village and Spa by Ritz-Carlton is buzzing with activity.
With the recent changes in tourist visa policies in Qatar, the five-star hotel is all set to attract and receive more tourists from different parts of the world. Offering some unique food and beverage experiences and flavours of the region through a combination of restaurants, the traditional local village like five-star hotel is geared up towards attracting a greater variety of tourists.
“Our main market still is Qatar, Saudi Arabia and GCC in general. We are working with other partners like Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), Qatar Airways and Katara Hospitality, our owners, to attract more European or Eastern Asian clientele,” Wael Maatouk, General Manager of Sharq Village and Spa tells Community in an interview.
“A lot of changes in policies like the change in transit visa rules will hopefully give us better returns in 2017. I am sure the overall strategy of the country is to attract more tourists and mainly from those markets such as China and Europe and we start seeing some demand especially during their holiday time,” he adds.  
He says they are hoping for opening up of more markets including China, India and Russia. Occupancy at the hotel is good, however, the prices because of the competitiveness are dropping everywhere but that is normal economic cycle and hopefully they would go up again in the coming year, says the GM.
“The market here in Doha now is getting more and more competitive. And what we are doing is going for improvement of overall quality whether products or service. The Sharq Village and Spa is the only place where the Qatari hospitality experience mixed with luxury level of experience of service is provided,” he adds.
Maatouk says it is a unique experience for their guests and all the visitors coming to Qatar. And they want to keep this exclusivity. Currently, they are upgrading their internet network which is part of the strategy to improve the services for corporate guests to make their work more easy.
They are also doing the refurbishment of the rooms and overall tea and coffee experience. Within a few months, the rooms will be completely refurbished with the same Sharq Village trademark experience.
In order to attract more families and children to the Sharq Village, it is going to expand on its offerings for families.
“We do not want couples to come in and then worry about their children. We want to take care of their children. About six months ago, we installed a new outdoor area for the children with a playground. In the next two months, we are going to have a water sport area of children and an indoor facility which would be more suitable for summer,” says the GM.
“On top of this, we are going for the regular promotion after complete renovation of Al Dana Seafood restaurant and re-launch of Sea Lounge Terrace. Now we are going into Parisa, our Persian restaurant which is the best in town,” he reveals.
Maatouk says their brunch offerings are outstanding. “I think we have the best brunch in town and on top of that we are the only one who have a true 100% Qatari brunch on Saturday,” he claims.
He says they welcome all expatriates and locals who want to experience the Qatari food. “Most of us when we live in GCC, we are not familiar with the food of GCC. We think everything is rice. Here, we have an executive chef who is here every weekend to prepare a full buffet menu from appetisers to main course and all of them 100% Qatari,” says the Sharq Village GM.
The hotel has always been active in social responsibility activities. At Ritz-Carlton they have, he says, three major pillars of our social responsibility side; the poverty and hunger relief, children wellness and environmental aspects.
“So far we have done over 42 activities partnering with a lot of NGO and charity organisations in Doha. We have done activities partnering with Red Crescent, Shaffallah and other activities for children,” says Maatouk.
“We are very active and we have a special person dedicated, a director of social responsibility activities in the hotel who coordinates with all our ladies and gentlemen in the hotel and other organisations outside,” he adds. The experience that they provide here, he says, is well known as the Ritz-Carlton level. “We always say to our ladies and gentlemen that we do not sell rooms and food & beverage, we sell experience. Our aim is to leave a memory with every single guest,” says the Sharq Village and Spa GM.