Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) announced the launch of its ‘Tawash’ online destination training programme in Turkish, increasing the number of languages it is available in to six. The step comes in the light of the increasing number of Turkish visitors to Qatar. In the first 10 months of this year, Qatar welcomed more than 23,000 Turkish visitors, representing a 11 percent increase from the same period last year. The introduction of Tawash in Turkish provides a boost to the activities of QTA’s representative office in Istanbul and capitalises on Turkish travellers’ ability to travel to Qatar visa-free.
This move comes as a QTA forges ahead with its strategy to diversify the country’s tourism source markets and empower an ever-growing team of international travel professionals to promote and sell Qatar as a tourist destination in key markets around the world. The online destination training programme provides global tour operators and travel agents with the in-depth knowledge of Qatar they need to market the destination authoritatively and persuasively to their clients. Besides Turkish, Tawash is available in English, Arabic, French, German and Italian.
Rashed Al Qurese, Chief Executive Marketing & Promotions Officer at QTA said, “This initiative is designed to complement QTA’s trade-oriented and awareness building activities in key targeted regional and international markets. The training course serves to create a team of accredited destination experts to give Qatar extra reach and enhance QTA’s efforts at the grassroots level.
Al Qurese added, “It is clear that a growing number of international agents recognise Qatar’s tourism potential and are very keen to establish themselves as accredited specialists. Once they complete the course, they will qualify for great incentives offered and more importantly, become valuable allies in promoting the destination to their clients.” Tawash which means ‘pearl merchant’ in Qatari dialect and the training programme comprises five modules, each focusing on a particular aspect of Qatar’s tourism offering.
