A leading tour operator in Qatar, the Darwish Travel Company aims to use the wide network of its partner airlines to put Qatar on the world tourism map as a holiday destination.
With more than 50 years of experience in the Qatar market, Darwish Travel Company offers a full range of travel related services through its four wholly-owned subsidiaries - the Darwish Travel Bureau which is the GSA for 11 of the world's leading airlines in Qatar; Qatar Tours; Qatar Travel and QNT Cargo. General manager Shawki Beidas said the company which offers extensive outbound services, was looking at becoming a reliable inbound service provider. "There is no reason why Qatar cannot be put on the tourist map of the Middle East alongside the UAE, Bahrain and Oman," said Beidas. But he said the growth of inbound traffic would depend on how quickly the authorities developed the country's tourism infrastructure. Tourism begins at home, but a lot has to be done to achieve a friendly environment to welcome tourists, offer them proper facilities for sightseeing, choice of accommodation and developing attractions and activities which would appeal to the target audience, said Beidas. He said that although there had been a downturn in the company's overall performance due to a drop in the traffic to the US and Europe, the regular flow of passengers to the Subcontinent, Far East, Middle East and the Gulf had to some extent offset the losses. The company's inbound operations currently focused on the incentive market from Europe besides leisure travellers from GCC and Europe besides group travel from the Far East. Europe, southeast Asia and Australia would be main focus of outbound operations besides regional destinations like Dubai, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey. It is offering a variety of specially tailored holiday packages to these destinations. Darwish also has year-round special offers to Disneyland Paris, rail travel in Europe, cruises among others. It represents Disneyland Paris, Rail Europe and Eurostar, Sixt Kennings Car Rental, Qantas Holidays, Cosmos Coach Tour and Holiday Nepal.