(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Sidi Mohamed / The Peninsula
Tourism in Qatar is not affected by ongoing blockade as the number of tourists has increased and all tourism projects are going according to plans.
'The aim of the rumours spread by the siege countries' media saying that tourism in Qatar has affected by the blockade is meant to hit tourism sector of Qatar, said Saif Al Kuwari, Director of Public Relations & Communication at Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA).
'Qatar has become among the most open countries and many nationalities enter it without visa. There is no winner and no loser in the blockade as Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said in one of his speeches, said Al Kuwari.
Speaking yesterday in a popular Qatar Radio programme, 'Watani-al-Habib Sabah al-Khair, Al Kuwari said: 'Earlier we were planing to attract more people from neighbouring countries and the studies showed that this was a risk for tourism to depend on specific nationalities and any time this may change for some reasons, so we put alternative plan.
'Four months before the blockade, we started working on an alternative strategy and tried to revisit our plan and the blockade pushed us to finish the new plan quickly. The maritime tourism sector after finishing of some of ongoing projects will attract 500,000 tourists by 2026, Al Kuwari said.
He also expressed his hopes for increase of tourists visiting Qatar.
'I expect an increase in the number of European tourists in the last quarter of this year. We also have a plan to receive Chinese tourists, and preparing also for Indians and Russians because they are among the most important tourism export markets, Al Kuwari added.
Al Kuwari noted that many tourism projects are new and investors who were earlier afraid of investing in tourism sector had now become more confident for their investments.
Regarding the facilities being offered by the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) to encourage tourism, Al Kuwari said: 'We held meetings with the Ministry of Interior and Qatar Airways to discuss the obstacles and facilities with regarding country laws and now citizens of 80 countries can enter Qatar visa-free and we are also offering free transit visas within 96 hours due to results of these meetings.
On inbound tourism, Al Kuwari said that QTA has carved Qatar into six geographical areas and every place will have special activity of tourism and will offer tourism products representing Qatar's culture.
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