With the rising number of quality shopping malls in Qatar, the country is becoming a popular shopping tourism destination.
Just the other day, Quality Group International in collaboration with Global Real Estate Company announced that Wakrah City will soon have a new mall. The 15,000 square meter mall will be the second mall in the small city of Wakrah, and aims at delivering a quality shopping experience to its population of 80,000.
Scheduled to open by mid-2017, the mall will have a huge supermarket and department store, as well as a convenient two story parking. It has been announced that it will also include eateries, a pharmacy, as well as money exchange and laundry facilities, among others.
The news of a new mall opening in Qatar is not an unusual thing. The 11,586 square kilometer country of only 2.5 million people already has over 20 malls.
Actually, there are several malls currently under construction. Two planned to open this year are: the highly luxurious Alhazm Mall, which was named one of the coolest and most cultured malls in the world by the New York Times, and Qatar’s largest mall, the Mall of Qatar which spreads over more than half a million square meters.
The quality of experience and goods across Qatari malls have turned the country into a destination for shopping tourism. According to the Qatar Tourism Authority, 1.4 million people visited Qatar within the first six months of 2016, many of which spent their visit shopping.
Malls are such a big part of everyday living in the country, that they also serve as main hosts to most of the country’s events. For example, the month of August used be considered a dead month to Qatari malls, since most people are on vacation, and those in Qatar discouraged to go outside because of the summer heat.
However, since the launch of the Qatar Summer Festival, a month long festival throughout August, it served Qatar’s path towards becoming a prime destination for shopping tourism. Throughout the whole month, shopping malls offer activities, entertainment and great shopping promotions which attract people from all over the region.
