PR No.: PR 18063

Actions Qatar has taken to improve visa facilitation include introducing an online platform for efficient and transparent visa processing and e-visas, as well as a free 96-hour transit visa doubling the time stopover passengers can remain in the country.

As a result of these measures, Qatar’s visa openness ranking has leapt to 8th in the world from 177th back in 2014. Since the introduction of these changes, year-on-year arrivals from India have grown 18%, from China 43% and from Russia a huge 366%. None of these markets now need a visa to visit Qatar.

In 2014, Qatar commissioned a visa facilitation study for the country, which UNWTO prepared based on its global openness data. “Qatar has implemented and overachieved the recommendations of the study, setting an example by spearheading safe and seamless travel, enhancing the visitor experience and better placing itself to improve mobility for its citizens,” said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili.

“Openness and ease of access are crucial elements of the visitor experience. We have committed to making it a seamless experience, even as visitors plan their journey. We will continue to work with our partners on streamlining the immigration process at Qatar’s ports of entry, as well as ensuring that all visitor visas and visa procedures are electronic,” said Hassan Al Ibrahim, Qatar Tourism Authority’s chairman.

UNWTO measures the mobility of citizens based on their ability to travel seamlessly to other countries. While Qatar currently ranks 106th in the world in terms of mobility, 20 of the countries benefiting from the Qatari visa waiver are already reciprocating, enhancing the mobility of Qatar’s citizens.

Facilitating seamless travel is crucial to the continued promotion of tourism as a development vehicle and potential pillar of achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Qatar’s travel facilitation improvements coincide with progress made in visa facilitation worldwide. For example, Belarus recently made visa-free travel available for 30 days to citizens of 74 countries travelling through Minsk airport. UNWTO’s global visa openness index score has increased from 31 in 2014 to 37 in 2018.

Useful links:

Qatar Tourism Authority Website (includes nationalities eligible for Qatar’s visa waiver and other visa policies)

Qatar Electronic Travel Authorisation and Visa Service Website

UNWTO Visa Openness 2018

 

Contacts:

UNWTO Communications Department

Tel: (+34) 91 567 8100 / Fax: +34 91 567 8218 / comm@unwto.org

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Qatar Tourism Authority Press Office

Tel: (+974) 4499 7882 or (+974) 3392 4466 / pressoffice@visitqatar.qa

PR No.: 18038

Around 6 million jobs in the Middle East are related to tourism and the sector is expected to grow strongly in the coming years. Tourism is therefore ideally positioned as a general job provider, but especially as an entry point into the labour market for youth, and a source of economic empowerment of women through employment.

The ‘Human Capital Development in Tourism’ conference underscored how the direct economic impact of the sector goes beyond tourism, since improving job quality and opportunities in the sector also contributes to the general economic foundations and to build up resilience. Numerous politicians, government officials and tourism experts from across the Middle East gathered for the meeting and looked closely at the need for a comprehensive and regular monitoring mechanism of tourism labour market performance in the region.

In closing the conference, UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili stressed the enormous opportunities for the creation of decent jobs and enterprises through tourism in the Middle East and North Africa. In line with UNWTO’s new innovation and digital transformation agenda, he said that “tourism human capital development needs to prepare the workforce through education and training and by embracing technology and digital solutions as educational and training tools”.

Efficient partnerships between the public and private sectors are a cornerstone of such an agenda, especially considering that tourism human capital development is crucial for the competitiveness and sustainability of the tourism industry – tourism skills and competitiveness go together.

The Minister of Tourism of Egypt, Dr. Rania el Mashat, highlighted Egypt’s human capital development initiatives such as large-scale workforce development projects, capacity building initiatives, as well as apprenticeship programmes, all involving remote rural communities. “The Ministry is committed to the strengthening of tourism education and training programmes in Egypt in partnership with UNWTO”, she said.

The Ministers agreed to return to Egypt during the second quarter of 2019 for the coming 45th Meeting of the UNWTO Regional Commission for the Middle East.

 

Additional information

UNWTO Regional Programme for the Middle East

Agenda of the 44th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for the Middle East

Photos of the event

Contacts:

UNWTO Senior Media Officer Marcelo Risi

Tel: (+34) 91 567 81 60 / mrisi@unwto.org

UNWTO Communications & Publications Programme

Tel: (+34) 91 567 8100 / Fax: +34 91 567 8218 / comm@UNWTO.org

 

UNWTO.TedQual Seminar in Egypt - May 2018

The UNWTO.TedQual Seminar in Cairo, organized by the World Tourism Organization, its UNWTO.Themis Foundation, and with the support of the Ministry of Tourismof the Arab Republic of Egypt, was inaugurated on 5th May by H.E. Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Tourism of Egypt; Omar Valdez, UNWTO.Themis Foundation Executive Director; and Dr. Edith M. Szivas, UNWTO.Themis Foundation International Liaison Officer.

The UNWTO.TedQual Seminar was an opportunity for the leading Tourism Education and Training Institutions in Egypt to discover the UNWTO.TedQual Certification Programme, a UNWTO QUality Assurance System for Tourism Education and Training Programmes, on its benefits and on the steps to take towards applying for it.

Special thanks to contributors

Throughout the organization of this seminar, the UNWTO.Themis Foundation relied heavily on contributions from Egyptian Ministry of Tourism Government officials. Their input was invaluable, and we want to take a moment to thank them and recognize them for all their hard work:

• Dr. Soha Bahgat, Minister Advisor for Training
• Ms. Helen Tantawy, Director of International Organizations Department

 

Category tags

Within the UNWTO-UAE Tourism Leadership Programme, this year’s Workshop on “Innovative Approaches to Destination Branding” was inaugurated on 1st May by Mohamed Elnaggar, Tourism Affairs Expert from the National Tourism Programme of Ministry of Economy of United Arab Emirates; Omar Valdez, UNWTO.Themis Foundation Executive Director; Prof. Dr. Jörg Finsinger, Academic Head of MODUL University Dubai; Dr. Edith M. Szivas, Academic Director at UNWTO.Themis Foundation; and the facilitators of the workshop, Adam Bates and Jesse Desjardins.

 

This year’s UNWTO-UAE Executive Training Workshop is organized by the World Tourism Organization and its UNWTO.Themis Foundation, in partnership with MODUL University Dubai and with the support of the Ministry of Economy of the United Arab Emirates.

 

The 3-day Workshop wishes to share - with a step-by-step practical methodology, short presentations, discussions, debates, group work and practical activities - knowledge, processes and tools on global tourism trends, brand types, the experience economy and branding strategies.

 

Zaid Maleh, Managing Director of MODUL University Dubai, said: “This is a landmark achievement for MODUL University Dubai to be hosting this unique, first-of-its-kind workshop by UNWTO. Through this, the participants aim to acquire knowledge on the tourism trends, understand key concepts on the brand types, and branding strategies and look at ways at developing a brand for a destination. This is a great learning curve for tourism and hospitality professionals in the GCC and region and we thank the UAE Ministry of Economy and UNWTO for their faith in MODUL University Dubai in hosting such a prestigious event.”