A senior official at the Qatar Tourism Authority has admitted that Qatar's tourism sector will require up to 127,000 extra hospitality professionals by 2030, reports Qatari daily Gulf Times.
Explaining the number, Qatar Tourism Authority strategy development director Hassan Abdulrahman al-Ibrahim said: “At present there are only 20,000 hospitality professionals in Qatar. We have arrived at the figure of around 127,000 by 2030 based on the number of hotels that will be coming up in the next few years as well as the number of products and services that we will be providing in the coming years."
There are currently 81 operational hotels in Qatar, with another 110 under construction. Around 90,000 new hotel rooms are expected to be ready in time for the FIFA World Cup in 2022, which is expected to attract one million visitors to the Gulf state.
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Hotel occupancy in Qatar rose to 57% in Q3 of 2013 owing to an addition of 600 rooms to the market, up 4.73% from the same period in 2012.
“With the amount of hotels and other tourism products and services currently under development, Qatar’s hospitality industry will be able to offer young people ambitious roles in international groups to provide a meaningful career path for life," Ibrahim added.
Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference, Ibrahim said the authority was planning new initiatives to meet the rising demand for professionals in the sector.
“In December last year, we launched a training institute focusing on various sectors including hospitality in co-operation with our partners. Soon, we will be announcing some of the dates for the launch of these programmes and some of them will start in the next few months. This strategy will decide our roadmap to move forward.”
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