Hotel occupancies in Qatar were on the rise as per a report on the 2014 performance.
The country’s hotels reported an eight percent jump over the previous year, according to DTZ.
Average occupancy in 2013 was only 65% but last year it went up to 73%. As per the Qatar National Tourism Sector Strategy (QNTSS) plan 2030, number of tourists and visitors to Qatar would come close to seven million per year by 2030. Last year, the country issued 2.8 mn visas, which reflected an increase of nearly eight percent over the previous year.
The report also mentioned that Qatar has ambitious plans to boost tourist traffic from outside the GCC to nearly 64% by 2030. Now the tourist industry, it points out, relies mainly on visitors from Saudi Arabia.
Qatar is also will witness the opening of major hotels in the first quarter of this year, namely, The Kempinski Marsa Malaz on the Pearl Qatar, Doha Warwick Hotel on Rayyan Road and Melia Hotel in the West Bay. With the commissioning of the above hotels, total number of hotels and serviced apartments in the country has risen to 111. With this, number of rooms has risen to 17400 of which 86% are either in the four-star or five-star categories.
Despite increased occupancy levels, average daily rates (ADR) fell for the sixth year running since 2008. The DTZ report expects it to come down further in near future as nearly 4000 new rooms are expected to be completed in the remaining part of the ongoing year.
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