A big surge for travel bookings both locally and internationally have been recorded as holidaymakers gear up for celebrating Eid Al Fitr next week.
“During Eid holiday we have about 50 booking roughly per day, this is higher because during Ramadan, we only have over 20 people who are booking per month, so it’s four to five bookings per week,” CEO and Co-Founder of experience.qa, Abdulrahman Sajid told The Peninsula.
“Compared to the period when the COVID-19 was at its peak, two years back, we are now getting more bookings. But for the pre-COVID-19 period, the data is higher which is four times more,” he continued.
Sajid stressed that during the holy month, the bookings are less but it begins to peak up once Eid starts.
The reason behind why people are travelling more, he said, is because of the loosening travel restrictions not only in Qatar but in other countries also. Sajid said that “not only people are choosing to spend and experience tourism destinations in Qatar but they are also choosing to travel outside Qatar.”
“In summer, July and August, it’s a very unpredictable season, every year and during pre-COVID-19 year, we had the deadliest season, we didn’t have bookings. But this year alone and as the FIFA World Cup 2022 is coming, we are already getting tour packages and staycation requests as they want to watch the event,” he explained.
Moreover, Sajid said that his travel agency has also seen a rise in the number of bookings in September onwards. “We have numerous inquiries and on that specific period, a rise on people traveling to Qatar has been seen on our end, we started to have bookings already.”
Meanwhile, Orbit Travel and Tours Supervisor on Leisure Travels, Dhiraj Joshi told The Peninsula that they have seen a good increase in the number of enquiries for inbound and outbound tourism compared to two years.
“The willingness to travel has gone up drastically as countries are opening their borders for tourists and loosening up restrictions."
“This winter, we saw more tourist inflow and with the ease in travel requirements and the COVID-19 cases have been declining especially here in Qatar, we are sure the number of tourists coming in the country will keep on multiplying,” he explained.
According to Sajid, among the most booked package for international tourists are Desert safari and City tour. Meanwhile, for local tourists – yacht bookings and kayaking.
Desert safari tour starts from QR133 to QR1,185, depending on the package inclusion; Full Doha City tour and Doha City highlights tour cost QR100 each, and the old Doha City (Souq Waqif) photowalk tour costs QR325. The private yacht cruise – sea tour experience costs QR743 for three hours, kayaking at the Purple Island is QR200 per person.
