(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Qatar's National Tourism Council (NTC) has partnered with Alpitour Group to launch a new marketing and promotion campaign to promote the country in the Italian market.
Alpitour Group is Italy's largest tour operator and provides Italians with exclusive packages for stays at either the St Regis Doha or Sealine beach.
In a press statement yesterday, NTC said this move comes as part of the initiatives to boost Qatar's position as an attractive destination in Italy, where it is already making a good influence.
Since 2011, visitor arrivals from Italy have increased by 70% and to build on that growth, NTC started operating a representative office in Milan in 2016.
In 2017, Qatar welcomed more than 37,000 visitors from Italy, a 2% increase on the previous year.
'NTC welcomes the Alpitour Group's decision to invest in Qatar and we are delighted to support Italy's largest tour operator in this first-of-a-kind campaign for the Italian market, NTC chief marketing and promotion officer Rashed al-Qurese said.
'We are confident that we will attract more and more visitors from Italy with our authentic cultural offerings combined with luxury and adventure, including our new Al Enna Project for desert and camping experience as well as our new cruise tourism offerings, he noted.
The campaign promotes Qatar as the Alpitour Group's new main destination with the Sealine Beach Resort added to the Francorosso SeaClub portfolio and St Regis Doha included in its Sea Diamond collection.
Both resorts combine sea, desert, culture and adventure offering an all-inclusive holiday package for Italian tourists and event managers. Also exclusive proposals will be offered to the top spender bracket of the market through Alpitour's premium brand Viaggidea.
'The constant focus on improving our portfolio, widening both our and our customers' horizons, has always been part of our way of dealing with things, and Qatar is without a doubt an important bet for our group, Alpitour Group's chief marketing and digital officer Andrea Cortese said.
'It's a country that links past and future where centuries-old traditions are intertwined with a bursting process of development and innovation that's already begun: Italians will love discovering it with the elegance and exclusivity that distinguish Francorosso and Viaggidea, Cortese added.
Qatar Airways and Discover Qatar as the destination management company also supported the campaign offering direct flights from Milan, Pisa, Rome and Venice.
In addition to arriving in Qatar by air, Italians were among the top three nationalities to visit the country on board a cruise ship in the 2017/18 season.
To further boost Italian cruise visitor arrivals, NTC (formerly known as Qatar Tourism Authority) recently signed an agreement with the Italian Costa Cruises to place Qatar on the company's winter itinerary as well as to co-operate in designing special promotion packages for their passengers.
With 43 planned voyages, this season is set to be the biggest yet for Qatar, bringing 140,000 visitors to Qatar's shores.
The NTC-Francorosso joint campaign entails activities that will boost awareness on the destination, both on the trade and on the consumer side.
In addition, there will be great focus on the sales persons' training with the help of webinars and road shows to ensure that sales agents discover Qatar's uniqueness among the international tourism destinations.
The campaign will have a mix of electronic and digital media as well as Out-of-Home branding in Milan, Lazio, Lombardy, Veneto and Tuscany, together with a specific landing page on Francorosso's website.
Francorosso also ran a month-long promotion by offering free excursions to tourists who booked a holiday (flight + a minimum stay of seven nights) in the SeaClub Sealing Beach or in the Sea Diamond St Regis Doha.
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