The well-celebrated football fever FIFA 2018 made its showdown by passing the torch to Qatar. Russian President Vladimir Putin bestowed the beacon on the much awaiting World Cup in 2022. And with that, the 22nd edition of FIFA will showcase in the city of Qatar in the year 2022. Now Qatar is transforming itself to brand the football festival. Though there is a span of 4 years for the championship, Qatar has already kick-started the preparations. And since there is a possible expansion from 32 teams to 48 teams, 2022 FIFA is getting much complex and competitive. Another fact about the upcoming FIFA world cup is that it is the first time a world cup tournament is going to be held in a Muslim majority country. Qatar is the first Arab country to host FIFA world cup. To organize the world cup for the year 2022, there were a total of 11 bids including the United States, South Korea, and Japan. Though Qatar is the smallest nation ever to hold a tournament like FIFA, they won the bid eliminating Australia, Japan, and South Korea. And there is an expected number of 8 stadiums in Qatar getting ready for World Cup.
Qatar Tourism Authority has already branded their sports tourism with a strategic plan or the span 2017-2023 with the tagline “Qatar Welcomes the World,” and now this is getting more advanced with the successful tournament bid. Qatar has been documented as the World’s Leading Sports Tourism Destination in the course of a grand finale ceremony of the World Travel Awards (WTA) 2013 held at the La Cigale Hotel.
Qatar also implants a more profound vision for the year 2030 to bring the best out of sports tourism. A step by step progression is what Qatar is opting for, and this is an oversight to build a higher standard of living sustaining the developments for the entire nation. Long-term outcomes were defined, and the county is capable of achieving it by the defined year. FIFA on the same hand is encouraging more to speed up the process. Since the tournament showcases the tourism aspects of the country, Qatar is keen on building a perfect sports venue so that the 32 countries can feel the aww factor right in the same city. Apart from social development, the nation also focuses on Economic growth, social development, and environmental development.
The National Tourism Development
With the National Tourism development plan, Qatar is aiming at some long-term goals. The primary aim is to build a rooted world-class hub for sports and other cultural activities. As a result, Qatar targets a total of seven million annual visitors by the year 2030. Sustainable development is a part of this long-term goal and to bring this out, diversifying the national economy through efforts and contribution is preferred by the nation. With these functional developments, the government is up to score benefits covering nationwide economic, social, environmental and cultural sectors.
FIFA and national tourism
FIFA World Cup 2022 is going to be a breakthrough to Qatar tourism as there will be tourists from more than 32 countries. This can be utilized as a perfect stage for Qatar to showcase its nation as a whole. With the advancement in sports tourism and environmental and social tourism, Qatar could be the next promising tourist destination. Once the tournament is done, Qatar would turn the areas into public sports facilities.
Qatar is getting branded
With its active bid to host the largest Tournament of World Cup in 2022, Qatar is getting branded as a sports tourism destination. Qatar has already released the digital promotional material for the launch of their ambitious sports-related project. Qatar is promoting the event in both English and Arabic to increase the internal and external outcome. Local brands in Qatar is utilizing this opportunity to reach out capturing global attention. Qatar Airways is the first in such promotions.
Akbar Al Baker, the chief executive of Qatar Airways, said
“Airlines will take advantage of this huge capacity of Qatar Airways that is taken away, concentrating for FIFA, that they will charge you extra to do your travels because there will be a shortage of capacity.”
Qatar already made a clear-cut decision in accommodation and stadium renovations for the FIFA 2022. Local brands are getting highlighted so that by the end, they can get generate more revenue. In addition to that, Qatar is also aiming at global scaling so that the native brands could get better response globally with the arrival of FIFA.
Check out the major brands’ promotions that reaped goals in FIFA Russia 2018: https://brandthechange.com/2018/08/global-brands-made-shootouts-on-fifa/
