Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) held an appreciation event to recognise the partners who contributed to an eventful 2016 summer season in Qatar.

Both Eid Celebrations and the Qatar Summer Festival, which are three of the country's most anticipated nation-wide events, were held in succession between July and September.

These tourism festivals serve to energise the retail and hospitality sectors in a typically off-peak period. To acknowledge their efforts and support, QTA hosted representatives of government ministries and agencies, sponsors, media, participants and volunteers in a recognition ceremony at the St. Regis Hotel in Doha today.

The Qatar Living team was also in attendance for the closing ceremony. Qatar Living was the official community partner for both QSF2016 and Eid Celebrations.

"As Qatar's largest online social portal, we're happy that our contributions helped in bringing the community together. We had a lot of fun working with QTA and I am sure the community enjoyed all our activities," said Bilal Randeree, Managing Randeree at Qatar Living.

Qatar Living successfully orchestrated the Emojoy activation with QTA during Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha festivals in seven different malls including The Pearl Qatar.

"We're always thinking of innovative ways to keep the community in Qatar engaged, especially during the off-peak summer season. We had hundreds of people talking about the festivals on all QL platforms and participating in our online competitions," Randeree added.

(The award Qatar Living received from QTA for making QSF2016 and Eid Celebrations a success)

Designed to cater to residents and visitors alike, the festivals support a wider strategy to enrich Qatar's annual calendar of events and diversify the year-round tourism offering.

Figures show the strategy is beginning to bear fruit; in August alone, the number of visitors that Qatar welcomed was 2% higher than the number received in the same month last year.

Were you in Qatar to witness Qatar Summer Festival and Eid Celebrations?