Qatar tourism woos Chinese leisure, MICE travellers

The Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) is making inroads into China, where it intends to “first target leisure travellers and then aim for MICE”, now that a number of visitor-friendly factors are falling into place.

A trade mission to Shanghai and Beijing was organised in July this year and (at press time) Qatar was about to sign the Approved Destination Status agreement with China, according to QTA chief marketing and promotion officer, Rashed Saeed Al-Qurese.

Changes in visa regulations could also encourage visits from China. Said Rashed: “Qatar Airways and the QTA have announced a new transit visa scheme and as of November, the new system allows transiting passengers of all nationalities to enter Qatar for up to 96 hours in between flights (without visa).

“In addition, online visa applications will be available to all visitors from next year and VFS Global, which manages visa application centres, will be operating in three China gateway locations, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.”

Moreover, there are reasons to anticipate even greater ease of access between Greater China and Qatar. Qatar Airways which flies to Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing and Hong Kong, is entering a codeshare agreement with one world member Cathay Pacific, Rashed shared.

Further to that, Qatar Airways is entering a cosdeshare agreement with Cathay Pacific. The latter’s CX code will be affixed to Qatar Airways flights between Doha and Hong Kong, while Qatar Airways’ QR code will be added to selected Cathay Pacific flights from Hong Kong to Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.

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