Despite ongoing siege of Qatar, hotel occupancy rate in the country has increased in July this year by 6 per cent when compared with July last year.
The 43rd edition of “Qatar: Monthly Statistics” released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics shows that the hotel occupancy rate (in all categories) which was 53 percent in July 2016 increased to 59 percent in July 2017.
Hotel apartment performance also showed positive trend as hotel apartment occupancy rate increased from 58per cent in July 2016 to 61percent in July 2017 registering a 3 percent increase.
Though 6 per cent increase in hotel occupancy rate, and 3per cent surge in hotel apartment occupancy rate are not significant rise but they indicate that the blockade imposed on Qatar by three Gulf countries and non-arrival of visitors from these neighbouring countries have not hit the hotel industry.
The official figures also indicate just a 7.4per cent decrease in number of visitors when July 2017 is compared with July 2016. The number of visitors dropped from 1,695,566 in July 2016 to 1,570,810 in July 2017.
The bulletin shows that Qatar’s population has reached more than 2.4 million (2,471,919) at end of July 2017, attaining an annual increase of 6.3% when compared with population at end of July 2016 when population accounted for approximately 2.3 million (2,326,465).
The 43th edition shows significant increase in number of beneficiaries of social security as it has reached 13,649 beneficiaries during July 2017. Thus the total value of Social Security, has reached about QR78.3m during July 2017.
The bulletin shows that 629 building permits were issued in July 2017 marking a 53per cent increase when compared with same month of the last year in which 346 building permits had been issued. The official stats also indicate a significant increase in number of sold properties in July this year when compared with July 2016. As many as 238 properties were sold in July 2017 while in July 2016 the number of total sold properties was 194.
With regard to electricity consumption rate, the bulletin shows that the total electricity utilisation value during July 2017 was 4,521.8 GWh attaining a monthly increase of 4.6% compared with June 2017 on month on month basis.
According to official statistics, 8,404 driving licences were issued in July 2017 which is a 57.5% increase when compared with June 2017 in which 5,336 driving licences had been issued.
With regard to traffic accidents, a total of 451 traffic accident cases were recorded during July 2017, resulting in a monthly decrease of 7.4% in comparison with previous month June 2017 where it reached 487 traffic cases. At the same instance, 11 death cases in traffic accidents were recorded during July 2017 while the number of deaths in traffic accidents was 17 in June 2017.
The bulletin shows that 3,839 new vehicles were registered in July 2017. The figure has registered a monthly decrease of 14.1% compared to June 2017, where the total number of registered new vehicles was 4,471.
