Approximately three million people visited Qatar in 2015, a record number for the Gulf country, according to the Qatar tourism authority.
A total of 2.93 million people travelled to Qatar last year for vacation, business or personal reasons, according to figures in an annual report released by the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA).
The latest figures represent an increase of almost 4% on 2014, at a time when the country is looking to diversify its economy away from its reliance on gas and oil, which accounts for more than 50% of GDP.
"The report shows that despite global developments, which have adversely affected travel patterns, Qatar has shown resilience as a burgeoning tourist destination with growing arrival figures and steady hotel occupancy rates," said a QTA statement.
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The largest number of visitors, 855,000, came from Saudi Arabia, while India provided 375,000 visitors and the United Kingdom 135,000.
Tourism contributed the equivalent of US$3.7 billion to the Qatari economy in 2015, the QTA said, equal to around 2% of total GDP.
QTA forecasts up to nine million people will visit Qatar by 2030, allowing tourism to contribute to just over 5% of the total economy.
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