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Qatar International Food

Festival opens

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Doha Festival City, Qatar’s much-anticipated enter-tainment, retail and hospitality destination cost-ing over QR6bn, is all set to

open on April 5. The facility, located at north of Doha on Al Shamal Road, adja-cent to IKEA Qatar boasts several unique features including Snow Dunes, Angry Birds, VOX Cinemas among many oth-ers. it is expected to welcome around 20 million visitors per year.

“Doha Festival City is more than a mall,” Trevor Hill, General Manager of Doha Festival City said. “The visual games will be available with the open-ing of the City and other entertainment facilities will be added gradually. We will provide easy-to-access parking spaces to the visitors," said Hill.

“We have studied the best digital practices globally to ensure our visitors’ comprehensive journey through Doha Festival City is the most user-friendly and efficient experience throughout – from planning their trip via our website, to parking, way-finding and being con-nected via the free Wi-Fi whilst here," said Hill. "The technology we have implemented is quite new and exciting in the market. We are thrilled to be able to provide our valued customers with these smart options, where we will offer them support and convenience, deliv-ering the definitive Mall experience in Qatar.”

Digital way-finders will be conven-iently located throughout the Mall. “Doha Festival City is spread out over a total site area of 433,000sqm, so our interactive directory is sure to be of assistance for those seeking guidance

on any of our 500 leading retailers and extensive entertainment offerings. Whilst traditional printed Mall Guides will also be available, digital way-find-ing offers a quick and easy alternative and visitors can also search events, offers and find out what entertainment is happening in the Mall.” Hill aaded.

Doha Festival City will also offer vis-itors seamless connectivity with complimentary Wi-Fi to ensure visitors can find and share information and experiences. Whilst before even setting foot in the Mall, customers can begin

their interactive journey by visiting the new website at www.festivalcitydoha.com. The website offers an optimised experience where they can browse spe-cial offers and the Mall directory on all devices, from desktops and tablets to mobile on-the-go.

Once the visitor arrives at the Mall, the smart car-park will allow them to easily gauge available spaces through a red and green light parking system essentially streamlining the parking experience. Doha Festival City has more than 8,000 easy-to-access parking spaces, across multi-storeyed, full base-ment and surface car-parks. It is further enhanced with dedicated ramps to and from Shamal Road, all of which have been carefully designed to ensure that access and parking at Doha Festival City are stress-free and convenient experi-ences, from arrival to departure.

Doha Festival City is also home to state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor activity areas, including four unique theme parks that bring with them cut-ting-edge technology to completely revolutionise mall entertainment. ‘Juni-verse,’ harnesses the power of dynamic learning to inspire, educate and enter-tain. ‘Virtoucity’, will merge the virtual world with reality, to deliver an immer-sive digital experience. Snow Dunes, will be Qatar’s first indoor snow park themed around a fantastical Arabian town set in the distant past and Angry Birds, the global gaming sensation and Hollywood blockbuster movie from Sony Entertain-ment will also launch its first theme park at the mall.

Additionally, VOX Cinemas, is also set to revolutionise the cinema experi-ence for audiences in Qatar with 18 digital screens including four new con-cepts - 4DX, Theater by Rhodes, MAX and VOX Kids – which are exclusive to Doha Festival City.

Doha Festival City will also provide visitors free access to a 3km Outdoor Leisure Trail when it opens next month. The trail, which surrounds the project, includes a running and walking path, as well as an adjacent Cycling Lane with

technical trail features specifically designed for mountain bikes.

Hill said: “We are proud to be in a position to reveal a glimpse of the excit-ing offering visitors will enjoy at our destination. Not only we are committed to be a premier leisure and entertain-ment destination, we fully support the Qatar Government in its drive to pro-mote healthier lifestyles amongst the community, which is evident in our unique indoor and outdoor facilities.”

The Outdoor Leisure Trail caters for both running and cycling, and is designed with fun and fitness in mind. The mountain bike cycle track has a number of different route features and offers various surfaces with inbuilt gra-dients and obstacles to suit all abilities of mountain bikers and was designed by British company, Architrail. The run-ning track also has exercise stations along the route, allowing both casual and more serious runners to exercise and enjoy the green spaces being cre-ated as part of the project.

The Mountain Bike Trail consists of 13 different Technical Trail Features (TTF) suitable for beginners and more advanced cyclists wishing to improve their mountain bike skills, with each TTF designed to simulate challenges one would encounter on a Mountain Bike Trail. Features include Grade Revers-als, Berms, a Pump Track, Wedges, a Rock Causeway, Drop Offs, Rock Gar-dens, Water Causeway, EcoPlastic boardwalk, Mist Tunnel, Rollers & Jerms, Rock Climbing, and a wrap up section to put all skills to the test.

Hill said: “Throughout the develop-ment and construction of Doha Festival City, the idea of creating a space for the whole community to come together was a significant part of everything we planned.”

Doha Festival City all set for grand openingThe facility, located adjacent to IKEA Qatar, is expected to welcome around 20 million visitors per year.

Doha Festival City has over 8,000 easy-to-access parking spaces, across multi-storeyed, full basement and surface car-parks.

Snow Dunes, will be Qatar’s first indoor snow park themed around a fantastical Arabian town set in the distant past and Angry Birds will also launch its first theme park at the mall.

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMohammed Salim Mohamed

SUPPLEMENT COORDINATORAhmed Eltigani Idris

CHAIRMANSheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDr. Khalid Mubarak Al-Shafi

IMAGE PROCESSINGMohd Sajad Sahir

DESIGNAbraham Augusthy

PRODUCTIONViswanath Sarma

Inte

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Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

Participants to the eighth annual Qatar Interna-tional Food Festival (QIFF) which opened yesterday expressed

high hopes on its success as new and enhanced features were intro-duced this year.

Moving to a new venue which is the Hotel Park which provides more facilities includ-ing the four-storey basement parking which can accommo-date 2,500 cars, extending the festival duration to 11 days and introducing new zones are wel-come developments that could boost footfall to the much antic-ipated festival, according to participating hotels and restaurants.

“For the past years, the fes-tival has seen a lot of developments. It is now a festi-val at an international level, thanks to Qatar Tourism Author-ity (QTA) which is working very seriously on this project. Year after year we see different fea-tures and large crowds coming to the festival not only from Doha but from GCC and other nearby countries,” Anwar Aboul Hosn, Assistant Director of Mar-keting, La Cigale Hotel, told The Peninsula yesterday.

La Cigale is one of the 16 hotels which are taking part at this year’s festival, which Hosn believes an excellent platform for hotels to reach out to the wider public by showcasing their unique offerings in food and beverage.

“It is really a great event where hotels participate and we let all guests experience food and beverages of hotels which is a

great advantage to the guests who can try an array of cuisines from various hotels as well as other standalone restaurants under one roof,” he stressed.

He lauded QIFF as a one-stop shop where the entire family can spend time enjoying a profusion of food, combined with a variety of activities and entertainment in a perfect ambience, which prom-ises more visitors.

“We are looking forward to this edition because it is the first time it is held for 11 days. Based on our experience, every year is better than the previous so we are expecting more visitors for sure. The new location with ample parking space as well as more activities and participants could be key attracting more vis-itors,” he added.

For this edition of the QIFF, La Cigale Hotel brought its spe-cialities for which the hotel has been known for and endeared it to food enthusiasts through the years. “This year we brought our signature Arabic and Italian cui-sine in addition to international dessert. La Cigale is known for Arabic food especially Lebanese as well as Italian food. We have live stations where everything is cooked in front of the guests which creates more action and interaction between us and the guests, “ explained Hosn.

“We hope this year we’ll do great. We always sell a lot and

Qatar International Food Festival opens

we are expecting the same this year if not better,” he said.

Holiday Villa Hotel & Resi-dence, on the other hand, has brought Malaysian cuisine to this year’s festival. “Our main con-cept for this year is Malaysian food. We are showcasing dishes from Malaysia to all visitors and tourists and we have a Malay-sian chef as well,” said Ruban

Jack, Operations Manager, Hol-iday Villa Hotel & Residence.

Jack was also of the same view of the festival growing from strength to strength every year through introduction of new attractions. “It is nice to see the festival improving every year, becoming more international, attracting more people from other countries. We are looking

forward to welcoming more vis-itors this year,” he said.

With the pleasant weather and right timing, the festival is set to draw more visitors. “We expect a huge turnout because of the good weather and we expect all of them to enjoy our cuisine. The turnout last year was good but this year the festival is longer and falls on the school break in Saudi Arabia from which QIFF is looking to attract more tourists,” said Jack, adding this year’s participants are also well selected.

For perennial participant Radisson Blu Hotel Doha which have witnessed the journey of the festival since it started in 2010, QIFF has turned into a major event in the country’s cal-endar because of many improvements each edition.

“We have been taking part in the festival for eight years

now, since its inception and we are very much interested to come back this year because it has been improving year after year. It’s nice to see improve-ments every year and extending it from seven to 11 days nice. We’ll see how it goes,” Senarath Gunasekera, Food & Beverage Manager, Radisson Blu Hotel Doha. He looks at the festival not only as an opportunity to pro-mote the hotel’s food and beverage offering but also pro-vide unique experience to guests.

“We do look at taking our products to the market in order for the people to know them better and it is also interesting to provide some experience to families for them to come sam-ple our cuisine and have fun. We look at it not only in the busi-ness point of view but what it can bring to the society,” said Gunasekera.

Moving to a new venue which is the Hotel Park which provides more facilities including the four-storey basement parking which can accommodate 2,500 cars, extending the festival duration to 11 days and introducing new zones are welcome developments that could boost footfall to the much anticipated festival, according to participating hotels and restaurants.

With the pleasant weather and right timing, QIFF is set to draw more visitors.

Pics: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

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Radisson Blu have carefully chosen a couple of its restaurants to represent the hotel at the fes-tival. “We have 11 restaurants in the hotel and out of those we have selected our Japanese and Indian restaurants to cater to the visitors this time. We expect to take some of these cuisines directly to the people who have not sampled our products as well as provide more exposure to the hotel,” he said.

Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels is participating with six restau-rants, 'Al Shurfa Arabic lounge', 'Al Terrace Lebanese lounge', 'Argan the Moroccan restaurant', 'Al Canteen', 'Al Matbakh Rooftop Grill' and La Patisserie offering guests at QIFF a wide and exqui-site selection of delicious dishes and world-flavoured cuisine that undoubtedly reflect the world’s different cultures.

By participating at the QIFF, Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels aims to boost domestic tourism and provide the public with an opportunity to know more about the global services presented at the group’s various restaurants and experience the latest cook-ing innovat ions and mouth-watering delicacies.

Hafidh Al Busaidy, Cluster General Manager at Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels said, “We are delighted to be a part of the Qatar International Food Festival for fourth time. The QIFF has truly become one of the world’s must-experience city-based festivals, encapsulating the very best culi-nary hospitality that Doha has to offer.”

He added, “The success we achieved during last year’s par-ticipation has encouraged us to be part of the 8th edition of the QIFF. Our six participating res-taurants will offer an opportunity to all QIFF audience to taste the most delicious and tastiest dishes and we look forward for more success and accomplishment.”

The festival has introduced a number of new features this year including a dedicated Cul-tural Zone which has seen 10 countries participate on its inau-gural edition.

“Having a Cultural Zone for the first time is a good develop-ment because food enthusiasts can sample food from various countries and we are happy that

Attractions & more outlets at this year's QIFF

The International Zone, the biggest among the zones with 73 stalls, offers endless options to foodies. Apart from the various food stalls and trucks, foodies can also have Dinner in the Sky or try the High Tea/ Fine Dining lounge which have made a comeback at this year’s festival after their success last year. New this year is the garden picnic where families can collect a basket and blanket to enjoy a casual meal on the grass in the pleasant outdoors.

Filipino food has also been included. We hope the commu-nity supports us by visiting our stall,” Layla Bernal, owner of Eve Events and Catering Services which represents the Philippines.

Bernal, who heads Kulinarya Qatar- a Filipino culinary brand and movement initiated by the Philippine Embassy and driven by the Filipino community, believes the festival is a golden opportunity to introduce cuisines to Qatar’s multicultural community.

“The participation of Kuli-narya Qatar is a good opportunity to share Filipino cuisine to visi-tors. We are happy we were given the chance to take part in such a high level food festival

which is held only once a year and is very special to Qatar,” she said.

Adobo, one of the most pop-ular Filipino food, is one of the dishes drawing foodies at Eve’s stall. “We brought adobo, which is a very famous Filipino food most sought after by other nationalities. We also have sisig, kare-kare and other Filipino dishes that many Filipinos look for and miss back home,” she explained, hopeful that the fes-tival will be successful attracting more visitors with an excellent ambience and areas for children.

The International Zone, the biggest among the zones with 73 stalls, offers endless options to foodies. One of the stalls is

Filipino fast food chain Jollibee. “It is good for Jollibee to partic-ipate in the festival since other nationalities will be able to taste various dishes on our menu which are very popular across the Philippines and other coun-tries such as the famous Chickenjoy,” said John Leo Babela, Shift Manager, Jollibee. Since it launched in Qatar, Jol-libee has been patronized not only by Filipinos but also other nationalities.

“Around 30 percent of our customers are non-Filipinos. We have seven branches and hope-fully we will open two more branches this year, one in City Center and another in Wakrah,” he added.

Apart from the various food

stalls and trucks, foodies can also have Dinner in the Sky or try the High Tea/ Fine Dining lounge which have made a comeback at this year’s festival after their success last year. New this year is the garden picnic where fam-ilies can collect a basket and blanket to enjoy a casual meal on the grass in the pleasant outdoors.

Food and beverages offered at the stalls, food trucks and carts are priced between QR5 to QR35, while Dinner in the sky is avail-able at QR500.

Other attractions at the fes-tival are the signature Live Cooking Theatre, fireworks dis-play, and screenings of food-related and international m o v i e s b y D o h a

Film and Institute, Siraj - Qatar Foundation's new 3D animation edutainment TV series and Baraem shows by Jeem TV.

Earlier last week, QIFF Me — a new festival feature which offers set meals- launched in over a hundred restaurants and cafes across the country.

In addition, a number of five-star hotels across Doha are offering residents and visitors opportunity to join internation-ally-acclaimed chefs for an interactive cooking and dining through the QIFF Chef’s Tables which started yesterday.

The festival is open from 2pm to 10pm during weekdays and 2pm to 11pm on weekends at the Hotel Park overlooking Doha Corniche.

The festival is open from 2pm to 10pm during weekdays and 2pm to 11pm on weekends at the Hotel Park overlooking Doha Corniche.

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Qatar Airways on March 8 hosted a packed press conference to unveil its highly anticipated and revolutionary new Busi-

ness Class experience to the world’s media and travel trade leaders. Ushering in a never-before-seen standard in Business Class travel, the customisable pri-vate suites, named QSuite, introduce a host of firsts to Pre-mium Class travel, reshaping expectations for global business travellers.

The new seat design was first unveiled by Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker moments before the airline’s annual press conference at a spec-tacular reveal ceremony, on the opening day of the ITB Berlin exhi-bition, at the Qatar Airways stand. Attended by an audience of nota-ble VIPs, including H E Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Ambassador of Qatar in Germany, with the Mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, as special guest of honour, guests were captivated as a life-size cross-section of a Qatar Airways aircraft featuring the new QSuite was unveiled to rapturous applause.

Launched at ITB Berlin, the world’s largest travel trade show, the unique and patented seat has been two years in the making. Its highly anticipated unveiling drew media from around the world and up until the reveal had kept indus-try experts guessing as to what features and developments it would include.

QSuite features the industry’s first-ever double bed available in Business Class, with privacy pan-els that stow away, allowing

passengers in adjoining seats to create their own private room. Adjustable panels and movable TV monitors on the centre four seats allow colleagues, friends or fam-ilies travelling together to transform their space into a pri-vate suite, allowing them to work, dine and socialise together. These new features provide the ultimate customisable travel experience that enables passengers to create an environment that suits their own unique needs.

Akbar Al Baker said: “Today I am proud to unveil the future of Premium travel with our new QSuite Business Class. Our unique

and patented design is a world first in many ways and challenges industry norms by offering pas-sengers more privacy, more choice and more personalisation.

"With these innovations, Qatar Airways has revolution-ised the way we serve our Business Class travellers, ena-bling our passengers to enjoy a First Class experience in Busi-ness Class. This is truly Business Class as never seen before and is entirely in keeping with our Pre-mium product and service philosophy. On Qatar Airways, you choose when you dine, and the menu options are varied, with

something for everyone. You choose when you rest, and when you want entertainment; we offer more choices than any other air-line. It only makes sense to give you the choice to make your own cabin-within-a-cabin, creating double QSuites or quadrants.”

Each seat is crafted with thoughtful and luxurious details such as hand-stitched Italian leather and satin rose gold finish-ing, bringing an unprecedented level of luxury, privacy and style to Qatar Airways’ Business Class offering. To further complement the customisable on-board seat-ing experience that passengers will

now enjoy, Qatar Airways is also launching a new food and bever-age concept, introducing a menu that offers a host of new dining choices.

NEW BUSINESS CLASS MENUIn addition to the existing dec-

adent ‘dine on demand’ service, the new Business Class menu will now offer a selection of snack ‘sharing dishes’ available

throughout the flight, allowing travellers to turn dining at 35,000 feet into a social experience. A wake-up Express Breakfast will also be available for those who choose to sleep a little longer by making the most of the ‘Do Not Disturb’ option available on the door of their private QSuite.

Recognised by global travel-lers for delivering an extraordinary premium customer experience,

and true to its title of ‘World’s Best Business Class’ as awarded by Sky-trax in 2016, Qatar Airways will continue to delight passengers with an array of special touches and additional service enhance-ments, including elegant new chinaware and cutlery,

sumptuous soft furnishings and luxurious bed linens.

The recently announced part-nership with The White Company to provide exclusively-designed cotton Business Class sleeper suits and luggage brand BRIC’S to provide bespoke new

amenity kits featuring products from Italy’s Castello Monte Vib-ianoVecchio complete the refreshed and enhanced experi-ence awaiting Qatar Airways’ Business Class passengers on board.

NEXT-GENERATION USER INTERFACE OF ORYX ONE

Qatar Airways also launched a completely new next-generation user interface of Oryx One, its award-winning inflight entertain-ment platform. Oryx One’s interface has been redesigned to make it even easier to surf content and choose from up to 3,000 entertainment options – the most of any airline. The next-genera-tion user interface has evolved from the rapidly maturing online media sector, presenting movies, games and a special children’s menu in a format that is immedi-ately familiar yet revolutionary for on-board passengers.

Al Baker also announced that starting this summer, Qatar Airways will begin offering best-in-class inflight connec-t i v i t y , w i t h m o r e announcements to come in the weeks and months ahead.

This extensive and ground-breaking refresh comes as the airline celebrates its 20th year of operations marking two decades of growth, industry leadership and innovation. The new QSuite con-cept will be retrofitted on to the existing Qatar Airways fleet start-ing from June 2017, at an estimated rate of one aircraft a month.

Known for introducing indus-try firsts, Qatar Airways is the national carrier of the State of Qatar, and is one of the fastest growing airlines operating one of the youngest fleets in the world. Qatar Airways has a modern fleet of 194 aircraft flying to more than 150 key business and leisure des-tinations across six continents.

Qatar Airways chose ITB as the platform for this highly anticipated product launch in support of the 2017 Qatar German Year of Cul-ture, of which Qatar Airways is a proud sponsor. With the simple aim of bringing communities together, the year-long event cel-ebrates the strong diplomatic relations between the State of Qatar and the German Republic. Germany's Year of Culture with Qatar follows in the footsteps of Japan in 2012, the UK in 2013,

Brazil in 2014, Turkey in 2015, and China last year in 2016.

Qatar has become a popular stop-over destination in recent years and with daily flights from Berlin and a double-daily offering from Munich and Frankfurt to Doha, more and more people within Germany are discovering the many delights that the coun-try has to offer, from the traditional delights of the Souq Waqif market to the sparkling waters of the Ara-bian Gulf.

Qatar Airways unveils ‘QSuite’ — a revolutionary new ‘First in Business Class' experienceGlobal carrier sets new standard in business travel. First-ever ‘party of four’ seating configuration plus first-ever double bed available in Business Class

The new Qatar Airways QSuite is unveiled by Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker on the opening day of the ITB Berlin exhibition.

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Located at the junction of sea and sand dunes, Sealine Beach – A Murwab Resort, is not less than a boon for

vacationers, both locals and tourists, but apart from its geo-graphical placement, these are the impeccable hospitality serv-ices which create real distinction of the leisure destination.

Away from the hustle-bus-tle of city life, the resort presents a practical meaning of tranquil-lity and calmness. “We are back to serve our guests after a long break. Around 80 to 90 percent parts of the resort were under renovation last year,” said Nawaf Ali Al Obaidly, General Manager, Sealine Beach Resort.

Sealine Beach Resort is a place where beauty of nature blends with warm hospitality and modern entertainment facilities. After facelift, now there exists ‘La Merenda’ to serve Italian signa-ture dishes and ‘Reef & Burger’ to please palate of vacationers. La Merenda is situated near fam-ily pool area while Reef and Burger is near another swim-ming pool facility reserved for bachelors.

A visitor can sit for hours without boredom at ‘The Edge’, a lounge situated at the brink of beach to enjoy panoramic view of the sea. Shisha is the main attraction of ‘The Edge’ along with a variety of drinks and delicate seafood.

“The Italian cuisine has been newly introduced at the resort and soon it will start serving the guests,” said Al Obaidly while accompanying a group of media persons who were visiting the

resort after its refurbishment.Lush green lawns, dancing palm trees, pristine beaches, crystal clear pools, exotic cuisines, res-tive tides, luxuries-supported villas, private balconies, sporting facilities and counting make the facility a number one choice for thousands of people to spend their leisure moments at.

“One thing which most of the people of Qatar even frequent vis-itors do not know about is the rare species of birds which are found only at the resort. As this area has the biggest greenery in the whole region, many exotic birds land here by migration. Here such spe-cies of birds are present which are not found in other parts of the country,” said Al Obaidly.

Sealine Beach Resort has 77 refurbished guest units including rooms, suites, 2-bedroom cha-lets, 3-bedroom villas. Each chalet and villa has a separate balcony touching the beach.

A small lawn and barbecue space are part of each balcony. “It is an ideal place for a family or a group of friends to spend week-ends or vacations. A 2-bedroom chalet is good enough for a small family with four beds,” said Al Obaidly.

Signature hospitality, authen-tic tastes: The resort not only provides splendid lodging facil-ity equipped with modern installations and luxurious amen-ities, but also presents an opportunity to guests to experi-ence delectable food 24/7. Al Odaid restaurant offers a wide and mixed buffet better be called as a carefully-crafted food bou-quet. Al Obaidly said that to ensure safety of beach swimmers,

Sealine Beach Resort: A vacationers’ paradise

all safety measures were in place. “We are also going to conduct a comprehensive study of water quality and tide-height etc.,” was GM’s answer to a question asked by a media person. Among other guest-attraction capabilities, gaming and recreational facili-ties are there including camel and horse riding. “We hope 2017 will prove the most successful year after a break of 2016 that occurred due to facelift. We have added a number of recreational and entertainment venues to the resort,” Al Obaidly said.

Sealine Beach Resort is

owned by Qatar’s leading hotel operator Katara Hospitality and managed by Murwab Hotel Group. It is located in southern part of Qatar, a 30-minutes drive from Doha’s City Center.

Al Obaidly said that the resort, due to its world-class rec-reational facilities, was also attracting vacationers from other GCC countries particularly Saudi Arabia. “Corporate sector, especially oil and gas sector, is our biggest client. Sometimes, they reserve the lodges for longer periods,” Al Obaidly added.

Sealine Beach — A Murwab Resort has been named Luxury Travel Guide’s

(LTG) ‘Luxury Beachfront Resort of the Year — Qatar’ at the LTG Africa & The Middle East Awards 2017.

Commenting on winning the award, Nawaf Ali Al Obaidly, General Manager at Sealine Beach Resort, said: “We are delighted to be recognised with the coveted title, which represents pinnacle of travel and tourism achievement and culmination of our successful and extensive renovation proc-ess that we carried out in 2016.

I express sincere appreciation for our management, partners and staff for their unwavering commitment to excellence, as well as to our guests and habit-ués for choosing our resort and helping make it Qatar’s first lei-sure destination for tourists and families.”

The LTG Africa & The Mid-dle East Awards celebrate very best accommodation provid-ers, in both hotels and resorts, in the most sought-after desti-nations throughout the region. Sealine Beach’s new extension, which hosts 77 fully-refur-bished guest units is perfect for

couples looking for a romantic break as well as for groups of friends aiming to spend a joy-ful vacation away from the city’s busy life.

In addition to enjoying the luxury resort’s panoramic views of the sea and pure nat-ural surroundings, Sealine Beach offers leisure enthusi-asts a chance to engage in a plethora of recreational activ-ities that include a number of exclusive beach-sport adven-tures for the first time, as well as the opportunity to experi-ence an expansive collection of culinary specialties.

‘Luxury Beachfront Resort of the Year’ award

United Development Company, the master devel-oper of The Pearl-Qatar, hosted Ghinwa — a live kids’ musical performance at 31 La Croisette,

Porto Arabia’s Amphitheater, in the city recently. The performance was staged in two consecutive versions one in Arabic and another in English, and started at 4pm.

Ghinwa is a live performance sing-along show that is based on stories and showcases cartoon char-acters that are loved by children. The songs were both educational and fun and were enjoyed by peo-ple attending the event. The event saw a remarkable turnout of families both residence of the Pearl and visitors from all over the country and their families, along with attendees from neighbouring GCC coun-tries who regularly visit the Pearl - Qatar over weekends.

Ghinwa comes as another initiative of UDC to host activities and entertainment events that raise up to expectations of the visitors and appeals to them in line with the other great development of The Pearl-Qatar.

The Pearl-Qatar hosts musical show Ghinwa

The Pearl-Qatar hosted Ghinwa — a live kids’ musical performance at 31 La Croisette, Porto Arabia’s Amphitheater.

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Magical Festival Vil-lage’s (MFV) i n t e r n a t i o n a l shows have been attracting large

crowds drawing in visitors of all ages. The Village has seen an exponential rise in visitor num-bers this season, thanks to the numerous shows and entertain-ment activities.

This year, the Village offers four shows— “Alice in Wonder-land”, “The Wizard of Oz”, “Aladdin & the Magic Lamp”, and “Snow White”. These shows, which are making their debut in Qatar, are performed by inter-national Performing Arts groups.

The show venue accommo-dates more than 1,200 spectators who are entertained by the mean-ingful and interesting content of these plays, with all the elements to wow and attract visitors, espe-cially families and children.

Abdul Aziz Al Mohannadi, General Manager of Ezdan World, the managing company of the Village, said: “This season, we have observed, thanks to Allah, a widespread success and good reputation, since the Vil-lage is the largest project for

family entertainment, tourism and shopping in Qatar and the region. We have noticed good response from visitors for the new products we are offering, including more than 200 diverse performances and games. Many of them have never been intro-duced to the Qatari market before”.

Al Mohannadi added that the Village exploits the best weather times of the year — Winter and Spring. The Village has been set up by a team of international entertainment experts, taking into account diversity and inno-vation and providing the most fascinating activities and events. These shows carry different mes-sages and serve various purposes, including educational, interactive, shopping and

fashion to satisfy all tastes and meet all aspirations. This makes MFV a unique destination among all recreational projects in the region as it enjoys considerable support from Qatar Tourism Authority, thanks to its advan-tages and services, in addition to coinciding with the Tourism Shopping Festival, which draws tourists to Qatar in large numbers.

More than 357 outlets at Mag-ical Festival Village are offering big discounts and competitive prices on luxury products and interna-tional brands. Ezdan World Company had announced before the start of the second season, which ends today, that a large per-centage of leasable spaces allocated for outlets has been c o m p l e t e d , i n

light of the intensive competition of luxurious international brands to showcase their products to the public in Qatar. The products offered include the latest fashion trends of shoes, bags, women's supplies, furniture, antiques, and technical supplies among others.

Al Mohannadi, said: “The large turnout witnessed by the Village is due to its fame as the largest tourism and shop-ping destination in Qatar, as well as the good timing of the Village’s second season that came in conjunction with the tourism and shopping festival in Qatar. The facilities we have made available to the Village exhibitors and outlets played a key role also in hav-ing such remarkable turnout of visitors who flock from every corner in Qatar.

“We have seen an increasing number of visitors who come to the village and enjoy the great discounts and competitive prices offered by the said global brands, especially women brands for whom we were very keen to pro-vide all that satisfy and cater to their diverse needs and tastes.”

Al Mohannadi added that the special prices involved the majority of outlets, including jewellery shops, handicrafts, women’s and children’s apparel, leather goods, cosmetics, furni-ture, textile, toys, electronics, sweets and authentic antiques. He pointed out that most com-panies that have sought to secure an outlet within the Village were from India, UAE, China and Ger-many, which have collectively rented more than 80 commer-cial outlets. This can only

indicate the volume of global demand for the Village as a fam-ily entertainment project that promotes tourism and shopping in Qatar, and enhances its posi-tion on the world tourism map.

He explained: “The facilities provided by the Village have been made for exhibitors to overcome all the obstacles asso-ciated with the exhibition spaces and rental procedures, where we have provided favourable con-ditions for outlets rental, including the possibility of direct contracting through the Village site. We have also cancelled the rental deadlines to open the door of contracting for more than one unit and granted larger spaces for exhibitors. We have given the freedom to our customers for marketing and presenting their products the way they wish to the public, without putting up any restrictions that may limit how or where they would adver-tise or promote their products,

but let the place open for all cus-tomers to take advantage of the Village’s large space and climate”

MFV was first launched in March 2016. However, this year, the Village kicked off with more shows and games, free art per-formances of 25 minutes as well as carnivals of 40 minutes. This season brought with it two cir-cus shows and 15 spectacles. Among the games enjoyed most by the public are virtual reality games (VR). There are 29 highly advanced games, which stimu-late all the senses to interact with the displayed content. The games hall is spread over 1,500 square metre, allowing visitors to enjoy games of their choice with com-fort. The most sought after games are “Space Trip”, “Royal Horses”, “Gyroscope”, “Skyview”, as well as the 60-seat train that roams within the Katara cultural district.

MFV has been built on an area exceeding 50,000 square metre at the Cultural Village, Katara. The Village houses more than 400 commercial outlets, 357 of which are shop-ping stores, 20 kiosks, 19 cafes, and 20 restaurants, in addition to 500 chairs and benches. The Village stands out because of its unique architectural design, featuring a charming European countryside style, adorned pathways with multi-coloured backgrounds and sun block-ers. Balloons are used to add a festive touch, as well as deco-rative books and colourful umbrellas, making the space attractive and interesting for visitors.

Magical Festival Village’s (MFV) international shows have been attracting large crowds drawing in visitors of all ages. The Village has seen an exponential rise in visitor numbers this season, thanks to the numerous shows and entertainment activities.

MFV has been built on an area exceeding 50,000 square metres at the Cultural Village, Katara. The Village houses more than 400 commercial outlets, 357 of which are shopping stores, 20 kiosks, 19 cafes, and 20 restaurants.

Magical Festival Village casts spell on visitors

8

Hamad International Airport (HIA) was ranked Sixth Best Airport in the World by the 2017 Skytrax

World Airport Awards, moving up four places from last year.

At the ceremony that took place during the Passenger Ter-minal EXPO in Amsterdam recently, HIA was also awarded the 'Best Airport in the Middle East' title for the third consecu-tive year and 'Best Staff Service in the Middle East' for the sec-ond consecutive year.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker said: “We are delighted to congratu-late our home and hub, HIA, on being ranked the Sixth Best Air-port in the World by Skytrax. HIA opened within the last four years and climbed to the sixth position in the world airports ranking, a move which clearly demon-strates our continued commitment to delivering the highest standard of service to our passengers, who have graciously given us their vote of confidence. It is even more notable to receive these prestigious awards as we significantly grow the number of passengers served at HIA year-on-year, to 37 million in 2016.”

Engr. Badr Mohammed Al Meer, Chief Operating Officer of Hamad International Airport, said: "It is a great honour that passengers voted our airport as one of the top six airports in world. Within the last four years we have climbed from the 75th position to the sixth posi-tion in the world airports ranking, which clearly demon-strates our commitment to continuously improve our serv-ices and facilities and to serve

HIA ranked Sixth Best Airport in the World

our customers' needs.For his part, CEO of Skytrax

Edward Plaisted said: "This is the third consecutive year that Hamad International Airport has been named the Best Airport in the Middle East, and this com-bines with their jump in the global rating to be placed Number 6 in the world." For an airport that is less than three years old, Plaisted said that this

is truly a great achievement and underlines the excellent service and facilities that HIA provides to customers. The World Airport Awards are the most prestigious accolades for the airport indus-try, voted by customers in the largest annual global airport cus-tomer satisfaction survey.

The survey and awards proc-ess is totally independent and free of any airport influence or

interference in final results.The World Airport Awards

are based on 12.85 million cus-tomer nominations across 110 nationalities of air travellers, and include 410 airports world-wide. The survey evaluates customer satisfaction across 39 key performance indicators for airport service and product - from check-in, arrivals, transfers, shopping, security and immigration, through to departure at the gate.

Hamad International Air-port with i ts s tyl ish architectural design, supported by advanced airport systems, features two of the longest run-ways in the world, a state-of-the-art air traffic con-trol tower, a terminal building with annual capacity of 30 mil-lion passengers and over 40,000 square metres of com-bined retail, food and beverage facilities and a uniquely shaped public mosque.

HIA was classified as a Five Star airport in January this year, after being audited by Skytrax, elevating it into the elite category of top-tier air-ports. It is only the sixth airport worldwide to have earned the Five Star distinction, and the only airport in the Middle East with the best-in-class designator.

Smart Airport Program

Hamad International Airport, the award winning five-star gate-way to Qatar, was the official

sponsor of this year’s QITCOM Exhibition and Conference, Qatar’s biggest annual digital event, con-necting smart technology with international expertise, industry specialists, key government deci-sion makers, innovators and entrepreneurs.

A digital transformation pro-gramme is under way at HIA to ensure it continues to set bench-marks in customer experience, while continuously improving effi-ciency, safety and security. Underpinning the transformation are some of the most innovative and leading-edge technologies.

HIA took the opportunity to showcase how its Smart Airport Program is transforming the pas-senger journey; and to launch its new smart watch app and aug-mented reality offering which will enable visitors to discover the unique art exhibits on dis-play at HIA.

Badr Mohammed Al Meer, Chief Operating Officer at HIA said: “Strategic investments in technology are at the heart of our mission to continuously improve efficiency and to pro-vide great customer experience. At QITCOM, demonstrated how technology is used by HIA to become “connected” airport of the future.” Visitors to HIA’s exhibition stand got an oppor-tunity to experience Smart Airport concept first-hand through a simulated journey. At the beginning of the journey, each visitor was given a smart phone, a smart watch and travel information and encouraged to

experience un-assisted interac-tion at various airport touch points, including self-check-in, self-bag-drop, immigration/bor-der control, E-gate and self-boarding gate; while observing how the airport meas-ures its service levels in real-time. The simulated jour-ney also showcased HIA’s unique Beacon-enabled mobile app, which provides live flight notifications, turn-by-turn nav-igation and information of ongoing retail offers.

The World Airport Awards are based on 12.85 million customer nominations across 110 nationalities of air travellers, and include 410 airports worldwide.

Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula

HIA's Smart Airport Program is transforming the passenger journey.