Economic Impact of Festival in Qatar - Essay Example

Economic impact of festival in Qatar Introduction: All over the globe, countries are now started to find several ways to boost their economy and at the same time strengthen their foreign currency reserve. All over the world in every country, in almost every cities there are few cultural events or festivals which pulls hundred and thousands of people all over the globe to that particular city or country. This festival acts as a way to exchange cultural values, thoughts and most importantly helps people from rest of the world to know that city/country in better way. Festival not only a social bridge between people of various parts of the world, but at the same time it helps the economy of the nation to grow faster. From a general point of view any festival has following impacts on any country/city /society: Festival helps the country to boost its economy; Festival helps to fostering community pride in a large way; Festivals help people to teach and at the same time learn new things from the visitors; and Festival often helps a country or any community to strengthen its relationship with the neighboring nations. (Grames & Vitcenda, 2012). In this paper the main objective is to analyze the economic status of Qatar from an overall perspective, measure how it able to grow in a span of last ten or so years and how various festivals of Qatar helps the country to boost its economy. The paper will also focus on government spending in various kinds of festivals in Qatar and whether those spending by the government able to yield good result in terms of stable economic relation with others, boosting the economy as a whole , developing the overall infrastructure of the country etc. Festivals in Qatar: Diversity in festival is one of the main attractions of Qatar. Over the year Qatar is started to gain popularity among rest of the world due to its variety of international festival. Doha is the capital of Qatar and also the hub of every kind of economic, social and political activities. Doha is the main country which represents the cultural diversity of the country of Qatar in front of rest of the world. Doha is well recognized in every parts of the globe for its food festival, film festival, ethnic cultural activity etc. Doha is one of the fastest growing cities of the world. The growth of the city is mainly due to high volume exports of oil, liquefied natural resources (mainly gas) and other petrochemicals. The city is very modern with high sky-scrapers and high standard of livings among the people of the city. The city is in the center of attraction by hosting various international conference and local festivals. If one analyzes the culture and society structure of the city, it is very clear those Qatari nationals are among minority group in Doha as most of the resident of the city are foreign nationals. People who are posted in various top positions in different companies across various industries such as finance, trade and petroleum are mostly from other countries. Various organizations in the city are directly dependent on qualified engineers, management experts, and architect from other countries mainly from South Asia to run their business smoothly. (Cybriwsky, 102). In the light of above theory it is very clear that the local people of the city of Qatar are more dependent on various other alternatives. Various international festivals like food festival, film festivals are the key source of income for the local people in the city of Doha. Both the food festival as well as the film festival is major point of attraction for people across the globe. Many people across various parts of the globe are keen to have a visit in Doha during the time of food festival or film festival. The number of tourist is rising every year as both events are gaining popularity every year. Here the discussion is based on the impact of Doha food festival in the growth of the economy of Doha. Festivals: Big Benefits for the People/Society: It is very obvious that various festivals all over the globe attract visitors. The amount of money spends by the visitors’ boosts the local economy both on and off the festival site. Increasing number of travelers not only helps the economy to grow but at the same time provides various new opportunities for jobs in travel and tourism sector, helps to develop society and infrastructure-as a whole brings about a holistic development for any society. Festivals ensure both direct and indirect earning for the government. Are various kinds of on-site spending associated with any festivals like admission fees, parking fees, food, beverage and souvenir sales etc. Apart from these direct incomes, festival is responsible for various kinds of offsite earning as well. Increase in the number of foreign visitors is resultant to more earning for hotels and other hospitality industry in a country. So the amount payable by them to government as tax also started to increase. Not some other associated industries also started to earn more. For example, when visitors stop at local gas stations to refuel their car there is a better option for the fuel pump owner to earn more, the local souvenir shops, and restaurants– all the other small industries also get an opportunity to earn more. As a result the gross per capita income for any city started to get benefited from the increasing number of tourist. Grames & Vitcenda in their review has mentioned that “overnight visitors provide another source of off-site revenue to communities that host festivals. For example, festivals also provide free marketing and advertising for local businesses as visitors talk about their fun experiences when they go back home. The economic benefits of successful festivals ripple throughout a local economy–affecting tourism and non-tourism- related businesses alike.” (Grames & Vitcenda). Doha Food Festival: In recent times, Doha food festival is one of the most exciting events in the world. Doha food festivals provide a great opportunity to the people of the country of Qatar as well as hundreds and thousands of others to enjoy the rich variety of foods available in Asia and other parts of the world in a common place. The event was first organized in the year of 2010 and it was a great success. Since then every year the event is gaining more and more popularity among the people of the world. Now, along with Doha film festival the Doha food festival is also a big annual event of the city which not only attract more and more people across the globe in Qatar but at the same time create more new job opportunity, help the tourism industry to grow faster and most importantly help the economy to be in a stable condition. Arts and Culture Industry Injects Billions in the Economy: All over the world arts and culture is a great source of economy for every country. Qatar is also no exception. Being a part of GCC country the economy of Qatar is more or less largely dependent on oil and petrochemicals products and export of the same to other countries. Reports published by various organizations have suggested that industry associated with arts and culture have generated total volume of $135.2 billion of economic activity $61 billion from various activities of nonprofit organizations across the globe and $74 billion from audience expenditures. The sector is responsible for $ 22.3 billion of local, state and federal revenue and most importantly 4 million full time jobs. (Kavner, 2012). Doha Food Festival Creates New Job Opportunity: For a country like Qatar travel and tourism is not a major source of money for the economy. From the very beginning the country is looking to develop their economy on the basis of large pool of natural oil and gas resources that they have along with exporting various petroleum products to several non GCC countries in South Asia as well as rest of the world. But as the time moves on government of Qatar started to realize that depending too much on oil and petroleum industry is not a stable solution for a long term economic growth. So they started to look for alternate source of earning foreign currency. To achieve this objective government started to encourage different festivals in Qatar. The Doha food festival was started in the year of 2010 and since then every year the events started to gain more and more momentum. The biggest advantage of this event is increasing job opportunity in the travel and tourism sector of Doha. In Qatar there are large numbers of foreign multinational companies as well as national companies as well. But like other GCC countries, most of the private sector jobs are dominated by the foreign people in Qatar. The main reason is the low salary scale offered by the companies. Likewise the national companies also look for well-trained foreign people to manage their operations more effectively. In a report published in Gulf Times, John (2014) has mentioned that “Despite investments and job creation in the non-oil sectors in the GCC countries, the general unwillingness among locals coupled with lack of adequate skills for higher end jobs has led to most vacancies in the private sector being filled up by expatriates.” This is a very common trend in most of the GCC countries and in Qatar, there are almost 99% vacancies are being filled up by the experts from other nations. This is a very critical issue associated with the governance of any nation and in case of Qatar, the occurrence of various festivals helping the local greatly to get an alternate option to get associated with. Soman (2013) in his analysis has mentioned that as on 2013 total number of workforce available in Qatar was 1.3 million. Like all other GCC countries in Qatar also the local workforce was more willing to join the government sector as 84% of local people are involved in the government jobs. In the private sector 74% of employment is through foreign people. To maintain a proper balance between government and private sector employment the Qatar government is now taking up various promotional projects. Associating various foreign companies with local events like food festivals film festivals is one such initiative of the government. These festivals give a big opportunity to the government to earn a large volume of foreign currency. As there are number of foreign tourist make a visit to the country during the festival times, so it is a better opportunity for various private tour and travel operators, private hotels to recruit more local people in service or set a contract with them which not only will help them to serve the tourist better but at the same time will also help them to generate interest among the local people to join private companies. Soman (2013) in his review has also mentioned that as per the government of Qatar’s National Development Strategy 2011-2016, they are trying to increase the number of citizen in the private firms up to 15% by the end of 2016. In the year of 2012 the ration was close to 8.5%. The growth rate of employment of local people in the private companies growing very slowly as the rate of employment was 6.8% in the year of 2008. (Soman, 2013). In this light one can easily say that events like food festival, film festival can increase the number of local people in the private travel and tourism companies along with various foreign travel companies who in order to boost their profitability will look to recruit more and more local people. Arts and Culture Industry injects Billion into Economy: For any country cultural events and festivals are key forces to develop a brand image for them in front of the world. Festivals whether it may be ritual, or corporate or any kind of entertainment or social events- all are of same importance for the people of the host nation to build an image of themselves in front of the rest. In Qatar, several events like food festival, film festivals are the key behind developing a special image of the country. Food is one of the best representations of the culture of the people of any country. Variety of foods creates an impression of diverse culture. Foods in Qatar are more or less common like all other GCC countries with few local varieties. But the food festival in Doha will provide an opportunity not only for the restaurants and people of the country to project their choice of food but also act as a common platform for almost all the GCC countries to demonstrate their food variety. At the same time with the growing popularity of the festival, many big names in the food and beverage industry of the world across the countries are now started to participate in this festival making it a grand success. Liu & Chen (2007) in their article has mentioned that “City marketing provides a good vehicle to strengthen a city in competition. Hosting various festivals or special events is an effective approach to enhance city marketing.” (Liu & Chen, Abstract). These events not only help the city to demonstrate itself in the world map distinctly, clearly demonstrate the uniqueness of the city and most importantly the culture, prospect of future growth and economy more prominently in front of others. A successful organization of this kind of festival can help any city immensely. Government then not has to bother about foreign investment or other financial tie up as various other countries by their own will look to have a tie up with the particular city. Doha Food Festival and growing Travel-Tourism Industry in Qatar: From an overall perspective, travel and tourism sector is one of the key sectors contributing significantly to the growth of economy and GDP. In some countries travel and tourism industry is the main source of earning foreign currency. In countries like Qatar travel and tourism industry is dependent on some factors like local festivals, international events etc. to attract more people. Like Doha film festival Doha food festival is also a key event that attracts a large number of tourists from various parts of the globe. The travel and tourism industry as a sector contributes QAR 12.4bn ($3.4bn) to Qatar’s GDP directly. The figure is equivalent to1.8% of total economic activities. If one considers both the direct and indirect impact of travel and tourism industry then the total figure is 4 times higher than the above mentioned figure (QAR 47.6bn or $ 13bn) which is close to 6.7% of total GDP. In the year 2013 the travel and tourism industry is expected to grow 7.1% and for a span of next 10 years-the expected growth rate is 4% on an average. After the introduction of Doha food festival started in the year 2010, the number of tourist arrival increasing every year. The main objective of the government is to reach 20% annual growth in number of tourist arriving from various parts of the country especially from GCC countries. (Karim, 2014). Recent reports have also suggested that in 2012 total 217540 number of tourist visited the country during various events and the figure was 10% more than that of 2011. Mukherjee (2013) in her report has mentioned that “The growth in the number of tourists is in tandem with the fact that in 2012 alone, a total of 18,931 rooms were available in 110 hotels in Qatar which clearly conveys the country is seriously positioning itself as an attractive destination for business tourism.” (Mukherjee, 2013) As a matter of fact the city has move up by 49 positions to reach up to 111th position sharing with Florence, Riga and San Juan. (Mukherjee, 2013). From the above analysis one can easily figure out that as a city Qatar is able to position itself as one of the main attraction among various tourists across the globe. This is not only because variety of festivals or event but at the same time the location of the country, cost factor associated with making a trip to the city, social and economic conditions all play a key role in making the country a top destination for the travellers. Conclusion: Festival is not only an enjoyable event for any country or city or society but at the same time it is also a way to boost the economy of any particular area. Any popular festival can attract hundred and thousands of people of over the globe and with the increasing popularity the number is always moving on the upward direction. In a city like Doha or better to say in a country like Qatar food festival is a great alternate resource to boost the economy and at the same time reduce the dependency of the country’s economy on natural resources and export of other petroleum products. In Qatar agriculture is not an alternative as there are very few or negligible area available for farming. The economy of the country from the very beginning is largely dependent on oil and other petroleum products. But from 2000 onwards with the introduction of various social festivals, and great communication innovation the country is able to find out an alternate way to boost their economy and at the same time project the country in from of the world from a different perspective, Food festival of Doha is not only important from economic perspective but at the same time this event is a key to project the choices of the people of Qatar in a better way in front of the world. Food festival is a great example of lifestyle of the people of Qatar, their living style, their choices and their mindset. Participation of various other food and beverages companies from different parts of the globe also helps the people of the Qatar to get the best out of them, adopt the best technology and style of them into their system, reach out to more people with what they can offer to the globe in a more planned and attractive way. In a nutshell Doha food festival is an alternate way to promote brand Qatar in front of the world and rest of the Asia-which they are successfully doing since 2010. References 1. Cybriwsky, A. Roman. Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. 2013 Print. 2. Grames Eliza & Vitcenda Mary. Community festivals—Big benefits, but risks, too. Community Features. 2012. Available at http://www.extension.umn.edu/community/news/community-festivals/ accessed on 31.5.2014 3. John, Pratap. GCC private sector jobs ‘dominated by expats’. Gulf Times. 2014. Web; Available at http://www.gulf-times.com/qatar/178/details/379123/gcc-private-sector-jobs-%E2%80%98dominated-by-expats%E2%80%99 accessed on 31.5.2014 4. Kavner, Lucas. Arts and Culture Industry Still Injects Billions into the Economy, According to New Report. Huff Post Art & Culture; 2012, Web; Available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/nonprofit-arts-culture-americans-for-the-arts-economic-prosperity_n_1589799.html accessed on 31.5.2014 5. Karim, Maha. Tourism in Qatar -Developing a broader leisure industry. Global Arab network. 2013. Web; Available at http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/2013082213244/Travel/tourism-in-qatar-developing-a-broader-leisure-industry.html accessed on 31.05.2014 6. Liu, Yuan & Chen, Chong. The effects of festivals and special events on city image design. Frontiers of Architecture and Civil Engineering in China. 2007. Vol. 1, I. 2; pp. 255-259. 7. Mukherjee, Arpita. Qatar’s growing events and exhibitions industry. The Edge. 2014, Web Available at http://www.theedge.me/of-mice-and-businessmen-qatars-growing-events-and-exhibitions-industry/ accessed on 31.5.2014 8. Soman, Rohan . Expatriates constitute 94% of the labour market in Qatar. Bqdoha. 2013. Web; Available at http://www.bqdoha.com/2013/09/expatriates-constitute-94-of-the-labour-market-in-qatar accessed on 31.5.2014 Read More