Qatar Tourism’s latest report gives hope for the accommodation sector in the country
Qatar Tourism released a mid-year performance report on Qatar’s tourism and hospitality sectors, which includes analysis and monitoring of the country’s tourism and hospitality sector. The report spans the months of January through June of 2021.
According to the study, hotel room supply increased by 7% between H1 2020 and H1 2021. The rise was largely driven by the addition of hotel apartments and five-star hotel keys around the country. The overall number of keys at the end of Q2 2021 was 29.7 thousand, up from 27.8 thousand at the same period the previous year. The study includes a breakdown of supply and supply growth per lodging type.
Despite the rise in availability, the hotel industry (excluding buildings used for quarantine) had a 7% increase in total occupancy rates compared to the same time the previous year. During H1 2021, the occupancy rate averaged 60%, up from 55% in H1 2020. In addition, compared to the same period last year, the average room rate increased by 16% (to 438 QAR) and revenue per available room increased by 24% (to 266 QAR).
The rise in Qatar’s accommodation sector may be ascribed largely to an increase in domestic tourism. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the number of overseas tourists remained low in the first six months of 2021. International visitor numbers fell by 82 per cent in H1 2021 compared to H1 2020. This drop is primarily attributable to extremely high tourist arrivals numbers in January and February 2020, right before border restrictions in March 2020.
With the partial reopening of the country’s borders in July 2021, commercial and leisure visitors are expected to return. As international tourism slowly recovers, accommodation performance and foreign visitation are expected to improve. High Vaccination rates, issuing licenses for hosting and organising events will help Qatar’s Tourism to grow and recover from the Covid 19 pandemic’s ties. This will also result in the growth of other sub-sectors like aviation, hospitality, entertainment, and retail to gradually revive.
