DOHA: A Domestic Tourism Survey will begin soon to understand and analyse tourism activities of Qatar’s residents within the country and their travels abroad.
Qatar University’s Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (QU-SESRI) and Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct the survey.
The survey is being developed collaboratively by SESRI and QTA experts and will be conducted each quarter starting this June.
It will feed into Qatar’s Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), a system for establishing the economic impact of tourism on a country’s economy.
The 2013 draft TSA estimated domestic tourism spending at QR9.3bn that directly benefits Qatar’s economy, and the survey will help refine estimates and fill data gaps such as proportion of hotel revenue that can be attributed to domestic/resident spending.
SESRI will conduct the survey through mobile telephone sampling and targeted respondents will include Qataris and professional expatriates living in Qatar for at least six months.
SESRI Director and QU Associate Vice-President for Research, Dr Darwish Al Emadi, will oversee the project from QU’s side while QTA Chief Tourism Development Officer, Hassan Al Ibrahim, will oversee the QTA side.
Dr Al Emadi said: “Drawing inspiration from Qatar National Vision 2030, Qatar is moving into a new direction of promoting the tourism sector as a key driver of socio-economic growth in the country.
“We are grateful to contribute to QTA’s efforts in finding opportunities and identifying concerns and obstacles that will help policymakers in setting the path forward for the nation’s upcoming era of advancement,” he added.
“Within the context of our efforts to boost cooperation with stakeholders from the public and private sectors, we signed the MoU which will allow us to gather information that will help define the impact of domestic tourism on the overall tourism economy and help determine residents’ preferences,” Al Ibrahim said.
“Such surveys and studies are a very powerful tool, allowing us to better plan, regulate and develop a sustainable tourism sector in Qatar.”
He said Qatar’s tourism sector will benefit considerably from the survey as it will help QTA understand domestic tourism behaviour, assess experience and level of satisfaction with the offered products and services and find the best means to vitalise and develop domestic tourism activities.
“The survey’s outcomes will be a real support to the continued development of TSA, which is the only satellite account system approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission,” he added.
The Peninsula
