Indigenous app bridges local tourism gap

(MENAFN - The Peninsula) In recent years, digitisation has increasingly influenced the travel and tourism industry, making travelling more affordable, convenient, and accessible. With the coronavirus pandemic grounding planes and shrinking footfall to hotels, the industry was forced to evolve and create ways to remain relevant, further embracing digital solutions. The tourism industry in Qatar is one of the largest non-oil contributors to Qatar’s GDP and has been demonstrating steady growth. Data from statista.com projects the GDP revenue volume from tourism to rise from QR58.8bn in 2016 to QR200 bn in 2028. As a priority sector of the government and a channel to highlight the country’s growth, development, and image to the rest of the world, its immediate recovery from the ongoing global crisis is critical. While the industry gradually returns to its pre-pandemic activities, the approaching FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the first-ever to be hosted in the Arab world, is expected to give it a boost. At the same time, the tourism industry is expected to play an essential role in creating a unique and memorable experience for the expected 1.5 million visitors to Qatar and the rest of the spectators of the mega event.  To this end, digitisation is leveraged significantly. Qatar’s massive investment in the digital sector has opened a wide range of opportunities to innovators and young entrepreneurs and the development of digital solutions. One such digital solution is Turismo, an indigenous application founded by Nada Farouk, a graduate of engineering from Qatar University.  Turismo aims to digitalise Qatar’s sports and cultural tourism by being a marketplace app that provides cultural tours and sports activities, staycations, and private rentals and tourism events. Farouk, alongside business partner Saad Al Hamar, hopes to bridge the gap between business and service and take advantage of the local tourism scene. Nada Farouk ''We started from Qatar and are willing to expand the idea to the Middle East by innovating solutions for Business-to-Business (B2B). We are trying to help the tour operators and tourism companies with some issues in the industry regarding how to reach the clients easily, manage the admin work and shift the offline market to online smoothly. ''There is a huge demand for tourism because there’ll be an increase of 40 percent in the number of visitors coming to Qatar for the World Cup. So we are trying to fill this gap and ensure it is a memorable experience, especially with Qatar being the first Arab Muslim majority nation to host the FIFA World Cup. This should be something that everyone talks about, and it will enhance the image of the Middle East,” Farouk told The Peninsula. Turismo launched in February last year, before COVID-19, and planned to develop its local tourism ideas by the end of 2021. But the pandemic and the global lockdown highlighted the need to explore the internal tourism market immediately.  Farouk noted that there was little or no demand for internal tourism until the pandemic because people usually save money and travel outside Qatar for vacations.  ''Expats usually spend nine to 11 months here and probably spend a few months outside the country. So we need to raise awareness for expats and even locals to explore places in Qatar, and they don’t have to be luxury things.  ''When the COVID-19 pandemic started, we saw a huge demand because we discovered that some tourism companies were fully booked for months for places like the Purple Island and other places people didn’t even know about. So I thought here’s a market opportunity,” Farouk said. The QU alumna said tech tourism is a complex and competitive market. However, Turismo is focusing on closing the gaps unexplored by bigger brands. Farouk said around 75% of tour operators, destination management companies, and travel agents in the MENA region operate without adequate technology. She stressed that Turismo’s main aim is to tackle problems in every country it operates and not just offering beautiful trips that could be found on any platform.  ''Big companies founded in the US and Europe never dig that deep into the MENA market, a very challenging market, especially in that industry.  ''There are issues for operators because they can’t handle all the business entails online. So we thought how we could manage the businesses of tour operators online and at the same time promote them to customers and raise awareness of internal tourism,” she added. Meanwhile, Qatar’s drive to promote cultural and sports tourism is also a boon for entities like Turismo, especially with the 2022 World Cup around the corner. ''The World Cup is a golden opportunity to be exploited. As tourism tech, tourism companies, and even the government through the QNTC, if everyone collaborates to take advantage of the opportunity, it would be a turning point in Qatar’s history. Qatar is focusing on cultural and sports tourism, and we are trying to align with the country’s vision, adapt to this vision and the digital transformation happening in the country,” she said. So far, the app has attracted thousands of people, especially in air sports. It has been updated to a more modern and friendly interface to handle the operations, sales, and administration work for tour operators and tourism companies. In the last six months, its active users have grown to 17,000, and it continues to feature among the top tourism apps in the region.MENAFN21062021000063011010ID1102314439