Cultural authenticity meets digital innovation

To call Qatar a travel hot spot is an understatement. The country boasts a unique blend of culture, sport, business, and family entertainment, on top of hosting major global events such as the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and the Geneva International Motor Show. Qatar’s government is also 100% invested in driving tourism as part of its National Vision 2030, an ambitious programme to put Qatar at the forefront of the global economy.

As the country’s official tourism body, Qatar Tourism plays a central role in bringing that vision to life. As Berthold Trenkel, Chief Operating Officer of Qatar Tourism, states: “We have an ambitious, but achievable vision and strategy for 2030. Over the coming years, we aim to increase the number of visitors to Qatar three-fold, increase spend in our destination by 3-4 times and grow the travel and tourism’s sector contribution to the GDP from 7 to 12%.”

Iris Wagner, Vice President Digital, Social and Content at Qatar Tourism, adds: “We want to inspire travellers on a global level, and then once people are here, we want them to have a memorable visit that sets Qatar apart from other destinations. That requires more than traditional marketing. It requires us to innovate, especially on digital channels.”

Qatar Tourism completely transformed its marketing technology to fuel this digital-first approach. The tourism board invested in Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service, making it one of the first organisations in Qatar to adopt a cloud-based marketing ecosystem. Combined with Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, and Adobe Campaign, the solution has helped Qatar Tourism to deliver more targeted, timely, and personalised communications to travellers around the world and make major strides towards its 2030 goals.

Transforming the digital journey from end-to-end

Before partnering with Adobe in late 2020, Qatar Tourism’s marketing ecosystem was highly decentralised. The company operated a number of websites, including different sites for consumers, corporate audiences, and campaigns. What’s more, the content on those sites was static, outdated, and written mostly in English, in contrast with Qatar Tourism’s spirit of innovation and inclusion.

Personalisation is now a strategic pillar. Wagner explains the ability to curate content based on a rich understanding of audience needs is central to delivering more personalised customer experiences.

“We saw little value in superficial customer analytics. Our goal was to dive deep and transform every step of the customer journey based on a sophisticated understanding of their needs,” she says. “Only a few marketing platforms could deliver that level of personalisation, and Adobe Experience Cloud was the clear front-runner for our goals.”

Tailor-made experiences for every customer

What began with a three month test implementation for the VisitQatar website quickly matured into the rollout of Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service across Qatar Tourism’s digital properties, including its mobile app and eCRM programme. The organisation can now give travellers a tailor-made taste of the attractions that will most appeal to them, be it a visit to Qatar’s iconic art museums or a trek to watch hundreds of flamingos stopping over on their yearly migration to Africa.

"Adobe Experience Manager allows us to provide targeted, timely, and personalised experiences to travellers,” says Trenkel, adding “that includes enhancing our VisitQatar mobile app so we can deliver 360-degree visitor experiences, including a festival and event calendar so people can get the latest on what’s happening in Qatar during their trip."

“The completeness of Adobe’s offering was a key differentiator for us. Virtually every module in Experience Manager fulfilled a need for our business. The fact that the solution was cloud-based was also crucial as we could easily deploy it across our organisation without putting undue pressure on our IT team.”

Qatar Tourism brought on technology partner Emakina to help implement Adobe Experience Manager and develop immersive web experiences. Emakina’s expertise was instrumental in creating a website that was both mobile-first and user-friendly.

A prodigious first year

Qatar Tourism’s primary goal for its website and mobile app was to collect more first-party data from audiences through email interactions and newsletter sign-ups, a telling sign of awareness and engagement. Less than a year after going live with Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service, the VisitQatar website had received more than 12 million unique visits and had over 1.5 million active users.

Travelers aren’t just visiting Qatar Tourism’s digital content; they are engaging with the company’s more personalised communications. Data from Adobe Campaign revealed that click-through rates for emails had jumped 88% since early 2021, with email sign-ups rising an impressive 155%. What’s more, over 100,000 people had downloaded the Visit Qatar mobile app in the same timeframe.

This was an important point for Wagner: “Adobe’s solutions have not only allowed us to roll-out exciting digital experiences and campaigns, they’ve helped us reach hundreds of millions of people and get them excited about the unique experiences that make Qatar a world-class destination.”

Getting immersed in “a world beyond”

Supported by its cloud-based Adobe platform, Qatar Tourism’s marketing team now spends less time managing and maintaining content across the stack and more time developing striking campaigns that inspire travellers.

One of its most creative and impactful campaigns, “Experience a World Beyond”, was a testament to the breadth of Qatar Tourism’s vision and the impact of its digital transformation since moving from its legacy marketing systems to a centralized Adobe stack.

At the core of the campaign were six CGI characters, designed to introduce travellers in more than 20 countries to Qatar’s many attractions. Drawing on data collected with Adobe Analytics, the characters guide each customer through one of 11 tailored user journeys based on their interests.

“Experience a World Beyond” spanned every owned Qatar Tourism channel, and was across TV and out-of-home ads with every customer experience coordinated via Adobe Experience Manager. Travellers could also immerse themselves in the campaign via the VisitQatar mobile app, where they could access 360-degree virtual tours and interactive digital maps.

The campaign’s results were as impressive as its scope. Using just 35% of its media budget, “Experience a World beyond” earned over 2 billion impressions and 600 million video views, and generated more than 100,000 new leads.

No better time to innovate

Qatar Tourism’s cloud transformation could not come at a more exciting time. The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ alone is expected to attract over one million visitors to Qatar, and that’s just one of many major events the country hosts each year.

Wagner says: “From the Formula 1 - Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix to the opening of Lusail Winter Wonderland, Qatar finds itself on the global stage several times per year, and each time that happens we have an opportunity to engage, excite, and inspire more people to visit our country. With Adobe at the heart of our marketing operation, we’re ideally placed to capitalize on those moments.”

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