· The 3-week long festival featured inspiring fashion by over 20 international and local designers
· 75% increase in number of raffle draw entries, showing spend of over QAR 40M with over 13,000 new customers registered
· 42 winners walked away with over QAR 2M in cash and car prizes
The fourth edition of Shop Qatar concluded with record sales, sold out entertainment, and packed fashion shows. The festival is a staple of Qatar’s calendar of events, heralding a packed season. It brought haute fashion stars from Europe, Asia and the Middle East to the luxurious Al Hazm, where models showed off beautiful looks from the designers’ latest collections. A staple of every festival, raffle draw entries this year showed a 75% increase, pointing to higher rate of spend as compared with the 2019 edition.
H.E Akbar Al Baker, Secretary General of QNTC and GCEO of Qatar Airways, commented: “Shop Qatar is part of QNTC’s wider efforts to diversify the economy and attract new audiences through innovative activities tailored to target markets within the country as well as internationally. This edition of Shop Qatar was the most successful yet, with a significant increase in sales across the retail sector. The festival evidenced the combined efforts of our public and private sector partners, who collaborated to develop a diverse programme, with retail, entertainment and luxury fashion offerings, to delight our local and international audiences.”
Retail
Running from 7th – 31st January, this edition of Shop Qatar featured discounts up to 70% at 12 retail partners that included malls, The Pearl-Qatar and Galleries Lafayette. The signature raffle draw events, in which shoppers obtain one voucher for every QAR 200 spent at participating venues, saw a nearly 75% increase in the number of vouchers, over the same period in 2019. Al Khor Mall once again took the top spot for vouchers, while Mall of Qatar and Doha Festival City showed the greatest increases in number of vouchers. Entrants to the raffle draws spent over QAR 40 million over the course of the three weeks, with 42 winners taking home cash and car prizes worth over QAR 2 million.
Fashion & Beauty
Shop Qatar continued to celebrate culture through a series of fashion shows, makeup masterclasses and entertainment offerings featuring artists from around the world. The launch ceremony heralded the start of the Qatar-France Year of Culture, with a show by French fashion collective Faith Connexion as well as Qatar’s own Hind Al Rumaihi. Makeup maestros Mario Dedivanovic, Hanan Al-Najadah, and Dalal Al-Refai taught audiences their skills, while 20 local, regional and international designers showcased their latest couture and pret a porter collections. Celebrity designer Nicolas Jebran, as well as a galaxy of regional design stars, brought some extra lustre to Doha this season, establishing it as a fashion capital to watch. For the first time in its history, Shop Qatar included fashion shows for children, proving that style knows no age.
Entertainment
Throughout the festival, families visiting and residing in Qatar enjoyed a host of activities including mall activations, children’s shows, parades, as well as arts and crafts for the little ones. Audiences were kept in thrall – with Disney in Concert featuring live music from the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, South Asian sensations Junoon and songster Sonu Nigam performing at sold out venues, while Arab crooner Cheb Khalid wowed fans at Mall of Qatar.
Shop Qatar 2020 Partners
Shop Qatar had 12 retail partners, with malls including Al Khor, Mall of Qatar, Doha Festival City, Landmark, City Centre, Villaggio, Lagoona, Hyatt Plaza, Gulf Mall, Mirqab, as well as The Pearl and Galeries Lafayette. Strategic partners of the festival were: Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Qatar Airways, Katara Hospitality, AlHazm, Qatar TV, Alfardan Automobiles BMW and Vodafone.
For media-related inquiries, please contact QNTC’s Press Office on:
+974 4499 7882 or +974 3392 4466 | pressoffice@visitqatar.qa
About Shop Qatar
Shop Qatar is a festival celebrating the country’s diverse retail offerings. Held during the winter, the Festival invites residents and visitors to enjoy special experiences at malls, bazaars and in scenic outdoor spaces.
The Festival forms a part of NTC’s strategy to grow and diversify the country’s tourism offering, particularly in the area of family and urban entertainment. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of partners in both the public and private sector, residents and visitors can benefit from special travel, entertainment and retail offers throughout the country.
Find Shop Qatar online
www.visitqatar.qa/calendar
Facebook: QatarCalendar
Instagram: @QatarCalendar
Twitter: @QatarCalendar
#ShopQatar
#مهرجان_قطر_للتسوق
About Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC)
Qatar National Tourism Council’s mission is to firmly establish Qatar on the global map as a place where cultural authenticity meets modernity, and where people of the world come together to experience unique offerings in culture, sports, business and family entertainment.
QNTC’s work is guided by the Qatar National Tourism Sector Strategy (QNTSS), which seeks to diversify the country’s tourism offering and increase visitor spending.
Since launching QNTSS, Qatar has welcomed over 14 million visitors. The economic impact of the tourism sector in Qatar is becoming increasingly visible with the government designating tourism in 2017 a priority sector in pursuit of a more diverse economy and more active private sector.
