Doha: Hotels in Qatar registered a solid growth in their annual revenues in November 2022 as the country saw a rise in visitors and guests to the country. The hospitality sector in the country witnessed a surge in demand fuelled by the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
According to official data released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA), the hotel and hotel apartments' revenue per available room for five-star hotels stood at QR1,374 in November 2022, compared to QR428 in November 2021 showing a surge of 221 percent.
In case of four-star hotels, it jumped to QR613 in November last year against QR202 in the same month in 2021; QR483 in three star and QR335 in two and one star hotels in the review period.
The overall revenue per available room reached QR1,031 in November 2022 compared to 312 showing a rise of 230 percent on a yearly basis.
The average room rate for deluxe and standard hotel apartments rose to QR1,513 and QR764 respectively in November.
The average room rate for five-star hotels showed an increase of QR2,610 and for four star hotels it rose to QR1,057. The overall hotel and hotel apartment average room rate was QR1,827 in November 2022, against QR447 in November 2021.
The hospitality sector recorded a rise in revenue per available room which is used to assess a hotel’s ability to fill its available rooms at an average rate. It is important because it helps hotel industry measure the overall success of their hotel.
The two-and one-star hotels recorded the highest occupancy rate in November last year, registering a rise of 92 percent. In case of the hotel and hotel apartments in Qatar, the overall occupancy rate stood at 56 percent in November 2022 and among the hotels, three-star hotels occupancy rate reached 78 percent in the same period.
The local hospitality sector has benefitted immensely from the World Cup.
According to the report, the occupancy rate of four-star hotels reached 61 percent in November 2022. Similarly, in case of five-star hotels, the occupancy rates stood at 53 percent in the review period.
The occupancy rates of deluxe hotel apartments and standard hotel apartments stood at 52 percent and 75 percent respectively.
Qatar Tourism has announced a package of programmes for 2023, as part of its strategy aimed at strengthening Qatar’s position as a leading global tourist destination, attracting 6 million visitors annually by 2030, and raising the tourism sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) to 12 percent by decade end.
The recent selection of Doha as the capital of Arab tourism for the year 2023 by the Arab Ministerial Council for Tourism is an additional step towards consolidating its position as an attractive tourist destination.
Last year represented an unprecedented year in the process of development witnessed by Qatar, its transformation into a global tourist destination, and its aspiration to increase the number of its visitors to six million annually by 2030.
The new Qatar 2022 hotels and resorts include: Fuwairit Kite Beach, The St. Regis Marsa Arabia Island, Rixos Gulf Hotel Doha, The Outpost Al Barari, Rixos Qetaifan Island North Doha, Waldorf Astoria Doha West Bay, Waldorf Astoria Doha Lusail, The Ned Doha, The Chedi Katara Hotel & Resort, Raffles Doha and Fairmont Doha, Rosewood Doha, Katara Hills LXR Hotels, and DoubleTree by Hilton Doha Downtown.
The State of Qatar will spend $45bn to expand the tourism sector by 2030 as part of the National Tourism Sector Strategy 2030 according to recent research by Knight Frank, an independent UK real estate consultancy in Doha.
In November, it stated that Qatar’s hospitality market was expected to grow by around 12 percent to reach $54.6bn by 2030.
