Qatar’s four and five star rated hotels earned revenue that amounted to QR703.1mn during the third quarter of the year. This was an increase of 13.81% from the same period last year thanks to the high occupancy rate of the hotels. Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) said that the occupancy rate had gone up from 50% to 57% in 2012. This was possible even though the industry had added 600 new rooms to the existing number.
The hotels that are four and five star rated occupy 11,717 of all 13,551 Qatar rooms and there is still a need for more budget and economy rooms.
All the key tourism indicators showed some improvement and growth in the third quarter compared to the same period in the year 2012. There was a 20% increase in the regional visitors especially from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait while Oman and UAE remained the same. Numbers of visitors from other continents increased by 13.36% and Asia posted an 18.27% increase.
QTA statistics also included wider data fields like hotel submissions that helped in informing the study. The average rate of the rooms as per their availability on a daily basis increased by 8.82%. Despite fears that revenue would drop due to the inventory of the rooms increasing it grew by a margin of 4.41%.
The industry has a huge demand and the factors that contribute towards this are the influx of various businesses and companies that support the development of the infrastructure in Qatar. The country’s economy had been exposed well to the global economy therefore increasing the number of tourists. There were also lots of activities and events held in Qatar during this period like the Eid Festival and the performance of Cirque du Soleil at the Aspire Dome.
QTA reported that the third quarter had led to some notable achievements like the promotion of Qatar as a tourist destination for the family in the region through the Eid al-Adha festival that was held in October. In September, a representative office was opened in Paris and it is the second of its kind in Europe. Qatar was able to take part in the celebrations to mark the World Tourism Day on September 27 by organizing a competition in local photography. The aim was to create awareness of the tourism importance to the community and the economy of Qatar.
There are set plans to increase the growth of the industry and new infrastructures like the Doha exhibition and conference center is under construction while the Hamad International airport is about to be opened in early 2014.