The newly opened Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, is fast transforming the country’s meetings and events industry to be a global premier business destination.

Already, the centre has hosted a number of high-profile events, and to date, 52 events with more than 30,000 visitors have been hosted in Doha.

The estimated delegate spend from overseas visitors is over QR 41 million (US$11.2 million).

This year, the Centre will play host to a number of prestigious international events including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) from April 21st-26th and the 25th Universal Postal Congress (UPU) in September and October 2012.

The upcoming quadrennial UNCTAD XIII is expected to attract a minimum of 4,000 delegates from all over the world including high profile political figures from the Arab region and ministers and dignitaries from the European Union.

This is the first time the conference will have been hosted in the region and it will be preceded by a series of events, among which are the third World Investment Forum, Civil Society Forum and Global Services Forum to be attended by global corporations, non-governmental organizations and government officials.

Trevor McCartney, Director of Business Development of QNCC is proud to announce that QNCC earned the honour to host one of the largest and most high-profile conferences in the world, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 18) from November 26th to December 7th.

He said: “This is a challenging event but at the same time, it poses a great opportunity for QNCC to take centre stage in showcasing its capabilities and flexibility as the host venue.

“The success of this event will put us in a superior position to attract many more large conferences and exhibitions to the country.”

McCartney added, “QNCC was built as part of Qatar Foundation’s strategies, in line with Qatar’s national vision of transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy. Naturally, our key target market is the association market specifically knowledge-based conferences and exhibitions from the MENA region.

“We recently concluded a familiarization trip for a group of potential association clients and received very positive feedback.” 

According to Qatar Tourism Authority, the country recorded a massive jump in the number of visitors in 2011.

The number of visitors from the Gulf region soared to 50 per cent compared to the previous year and an increase of 12 per cent for the international visitors.

Business tourism accounted for 72 per cent of the number of visitors received by Qatar last year.

The country was recently voted the World’s Leading Business Travel Destination at the World Travel Awards, which affirms Qatar’s position as a major global player in the Business Tourism industry.