DOHA: Qatar welcomed more than 2.8m visitors from around the world last year, representing an 8.2 percent growth over 2013, says the annual report Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) released yesterday.
Forty percent of the visitors came from GCC countries, 28 percent from various parts of Asia and Oceania, while 15 percent of tourists came from European countries, according to the report.
Since 2009, international visits to Qatar have increased by 91 percent with an average annual growth rate of 13.8 percent. According to the report, visits from all regions of the world have grown substantially over the past five years, with Asian/Oceania and GCC visitor markets expanding by 107 percent and 102 percent respectively since 2009. Visits from Europe have also surged by 82 percent over the past five years.
According to the report, the tourism sector — although in its early stages of development — directly contributed QR13.6b to GDP in 2013, representing 4 percent of Qatar’s non-extraction economy.
The total economic impact of tourism, including indirect contributions, tallied QR28b, comprising 8.3 percent of Qatar’s non-extraction GDP.
Hotels experienced strong performance last year, according to QTA’s annual report. Occupancy rates increased across all classes of hotels, with the average hotel occupancy rate reaching 73 percent last year compared to 65 percent in 2013.
The largest gains were experienced by the five-star hotels segment, which realised a surge of 71 percent compared to 61 percent in 2013.
The strong increase in demand translated into revenue increases across the entire industry. RevPAR (revenue per available room) increased by 8.3 percent last year with particularly strong performance in the five- and three-star segments, which witnessed gains of 9.5 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively.
Tourism also contributes substantially to the Qatar job market. In 2013, there were 61,000 jobs that directly supported by the industry.
“These impressive results would not have been achieved without the hard work of QTA, and its public and private sector partners, based on the principles and objectives set out by the National Tourism Sector Strategy 2030,” said QTA Chairman Issa bin Mohammed Al Mohannadi.
“I am confident that the tourism sector’s achievements will continue to reach greater heights in 2015 through newly launched initiatives and products to enrich the tourism sector and diversify tourism offerings. The result will be more visits from tourists from all over the world, thus achieving the strategy’s goal of establishing Qatar as a preferred international tourism destination with deep cultural roots.”
A diverse range of events and activities in Qatar, along with increase in regional and international marketing campaigns last year, contributed to growth of the leisure tourism sector. QTA witnessed a number of achievements last year with regard to comprehensive plans and policies, sectoral capacity building, participation in international tourism conferences, diversification of tourism product and service portfolio and market exposure expansion.
The Peninsula
