From left: Edmund O’Sullivan, Chairman of Meed Events; Rudi Jagersbacher, President of Middle East and Africa at Hilton Worldwide; Darrell Sheaffer, General Manager, Hotels & Resorts, Hospitality Development Company, and Tony Williams, Tourism Development Consultant at QTA, at the briefing.
DOHA: Hotel industry leaders lauded Qatar’s fast growing hospitality sector during a regional briefing hosted by organisers of the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC 2013) yesterday at the Hilton Doha.
Over 60 key industry leaders, local investors, developers and financiers attended the briefing aimed to shed light on the performance of Qatar’s hotel industry, foreseeable challenges and opportunities.
“Qatar’s hospitality market is set to witness a significant rise in the coming years. It is indeed one of the key markets AHIC is focusing on and registering its rapid developments. Hospitality and tourism are among many other sectors that will be strongly affected with the country’s preparations for the World Cup, where the government is showing great commitment to date in building a top class infrastructure and a primary model that caters to all industries. Moreover, hosting a mass tourism event such as the World Cup means that Qatar will have to diversify its hotel offering,” said Edmund O’Sullivan, Chairman of Meed Events.
Rudi Jagersbacher, President of Middle East and Africa at Hilton Worldwide, and host of the briefing, was of the same view, saying “with almost 1,500 additional rooms in the pipeline, Hilton Worldwide appreciates and shares Qatar’s vision to develop sustainable marketplace and tourist and business destination. We are introducing a diverse range of hotel brands to Doha, including the legendary Waldorf Astoria and DoubleTree, to bring greater guest accommodation choice to a city.”
“Qatar is one of the fastest growing hotel markets in the Gulf and many of the GCC countries will be looking over with interest as Qatar develops its infrastructure as part of the $65bn investment plan,” said Philip Wooller, Area Director of Middle East and Africa at STR Global.
He added: “Initial reaction to the hotel occupancies may appear lukewarm but when new supply and demand numbers are taken into consideration its clear to see that Qatar is developing into a major force in the region. Despite new supply numbers reaching as high as 33 percent year on year in the upscale category, demand increases are not too far behind at 28 percent year on year. It’s also interesting to note that Doha maintains some of the strongest Average Room Rates across the region and that coupled with the large food and beverage contribution provides a healthy return at GOP level.”
Moreover, the latest buoyant tourist statistics in the 2012 Annual Report showed that, Qatar witnessed 22 percent growth of GCC visitors during the first quarter of 2012. The report also states Qatar registered the highest growth rate of Asian visitors with a total of 36,385 visitors in the first quarter of 2012, followed by European tourists with a total of 10,456 tourists.
The presentation by Nehme Ayoub, Manager — Transaction Real Estate, Hospitality and Leisure Advisory Services Group, Ernst & Young Middle East, on the current state of Qatar’s hotel market for investors and on the vision moving forward showed that Qatar is set to witness a significant impact on its hospitality industry, driving a high growth of corporate business, transiting guests and sporting tourists.
The Peninsula
