An anticipated 11,000 rooms are expected to go live in Qatar, mainly Doha, in the next two-three years.
Of the 1.4 million tourists that visited Qatar in the first six months of 2016, 665,355 were GCC nationals, according to the Tourism Performance Summary for the first half (H1) of 2016.
QTA says the timing of Ramadan, which this year began early in June compared to mid-June last year, had a clear impact on arrivals for the second quarter. However August performance wasexpected to be supported by the Qatar Summer Festival which ran for the duration of the month.
The festival was designed to attract visits at a traditionally off-peak period in Qatar’s hospitality and retail sectors, with hotel and shopping promotions, cultural performances and sports events to drive footfall to establishments and venues, QTA states.
KSA remains the biggest source market for Qatar as was evident by the number of Saudis that visited the country in 2015 — 855,555 tourists to be precise. Indian tourists were the second highest, with 375,910 visitors coming to Qatar followed by the UK with 135,645 visitors. Bahrain, UAE, Oman and Kuwaiti tourists are among the top 10 source markets.
The trend continued in 2016, as Saudi Arabia remains the largest source market and is also responsible for the bulk of the growth recorded in the number of GCC visitor arrivals, bringing to Qatar 39,650 additional Saudi visitors, representing 10% of the growth. Some additional substantial growth was evident from the UAE (13%), while arrivals from Bahrain also increased marginally (1%).
In August 2016, the Qatari government announced visas on arrival for Chinese, Indian and Russian visitors in a bid to boost inbound tourism in the country. This has been a long-time request of the operators, who made it clear to QTA that visa regulations needed to be relaxed. Maattouk says: “…one of the things we complained about was getting tourists from new source markets, but getting a visa was rather tedious for them. They [QTA] were extremely helpful [to change the regulations]. They are already on track to diversify the market share, and increase the number of guest visitors in Doha.”
Moussa agrees on the topic of visa regulations and says that “removing the visa restrictions for some nationalities will be very helpful and productive”.
Abouelmagd is satisfied with QTA and the efforts it takes to collaborate with hoteliers. “QTA is definitely doing a great job. It is one of the active ministries of tourism that I have come across, having worked in many countries. The manner in which it communicates with the hotels, the participation in trade shows and following trends in the city – as a general manager I’m happy to receive all the information and be connected.”
For the rest of 2016, QTA remains confident the numbers will pick up. A QTA spokesperson stated in the Performance Summary Report for H1 2016: “Visitor arrival figures should see a further increase in Q4 as the 2016/17 cruise season begins in October.
32 ships have already registered to dock in Doha’s ports, and are expected to carry more than 50,000 visitors on board, a ten fold increase from last year. This growth will continue as QTA and its partners set in motion plans to redevelop Doha Port, creating an attractive stop for cruise ships in the Gulf.”
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