Doha: Deepening of Doha Port and the addition of extra berthing will help in boosting tourism in the country as it will increase the number of cruise ships and tourists coming to the country. Hotels, restaurants, retail and service sectors will be the main beneficiary of rising tourism, say experts.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications said last week that it had completed the dredging works at Doha Port as part of its redevelopment project. Up to 3.5mn cubic meters of material in the approach channel has been cleared and extra berthing has been provided to accommodate more than one giant cruise ship, it added.
Dredging is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of lakes, rivers, harbors, and other water bodies. It is often carried out for maintaining or increasing the depth of navigation channels, anchorages, or berthing areas to ensure the safe passage of boats and ships.
“Doha Port plays a huge role in Qatar’s tourism sector because it has become Qatar’s gateway to marine tourism. Any expansion work in this port has a positive effect on the country’s tourism,” a senior official of a tour and travel agency told The Peninsula.
“Dredging will have a two-way impact on the country’s tourism industry. First it will allow supersize ships to come to Qatar and second the number of tourists coming to the country will also increase because more ships will be able to come to Qatar because of extra berthing space.”
With an aim to boost Doha Port’s capacity, the Ministry of Transport and Communications had begun dredging work in December last year.
The number of tourists at Doha port has increased significantly due to the dedicated customer handling facility and capacity, government’s focused measures for the tourism sector and Mwani Qatar’s efforts to bring in major cruise liners to Qatar.
Doha Port welcomed a record number of passengers in the 2018-19 season. Doha Port received 144,707 passengers and crew on 44 ships during the season. The rise in the number of tourists was a result of mainline cruise vessels expressing their interest in Doha and deploying bigger cruise vessels to Doha. According to QNTC, Qatar received 588,000 visitors during the first quarter of this year, reflecting an increase of 10 percent compared to the Q1 last year.
