QTA plans more activities to boost tourism Tuesday, 03 August 2010 04:40

DOHA: Thanks to increasing tourism activities and expanding network of national carrier Qatar Airways, the occupancy rate of local hotels improved two percent in the first six months of this year as compared to the corresponding period last year.

According to figures released by the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), the rate of occupancy of the hotel sector was 61 percent in H1 (first half) of 2010 as against 59 percent in H1 of 2009.

In addition, the revenue of four and five-star hotels in H1 this year exceeded those in the corresponding period of 2009, the QTA said in a statement issued yesterday.

The improvement in the performance of the hospitality sector can be attributed to the efforts of the state to increase tourism activities, and host sporting and cultural events. It is also due to the continuous expansion of Qatar Airways into new routes in spite of the global economic crisis, said the QTA.

It added that plans are afoot to open more hotels by the year-end as increasing accent is on promoting tourism. Some key Asian countries are among the new markets being targeted for tourist promotion, QTA said.

“While there is recovery in the tourism industry at the global level from the global economic meltdown, its pace is slow and cautious,” said the QTA, adding that it has promotional plans that would revolutionise the local tourism industry in the days to come. “Investments into the hotel sector will continue,” said QTA.

QTA Chairman Ahmed Al Nuaimi (pictured) said the improvement witnessed in 2010 showed signs of recovery of the local hotel sector from the world economic crisis and in spite of the decline in global tourism industry indicators to their lowest levels in 2009, Qatar’s accent on increasing tourism activities in the country by promoting various attractions regionally and overseas and encouraging sports and cultural tourism, led to positive results.

Al Nuaimi said 2009 was the most difficult year for the world tourism industry due to the global economic crisis and the subsequent travel restrictions because of the spread of H1N1. In that year, global rates of visits declined to less than four percent, the worst in 60 years. Al Nuaimi said QTA plans to identify the largest tourist exporting markets and focus on them for marketing Qatar.

Expansion in Asia

QTA has developed marketing plans for expansion in the Asian market among the countries targeted for the Qatari tourism sector. QTA has prepared a plan to promote tourism which will be implemented in the Asian countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

A delegation representing the tourism sector in Qatar has been compiled including representatives from business tourism, the conferences and exhibition industry, sports tourism, cultural tourism, entertainment tourism and Qatar Airways. This campaign will promote the State of Qatar to MICE (meetings, incentive, convention and exhibition) specialists in these countries.  This is in addition to the continuous promotion of Qatar as a premier tourism destination, showcasing the different events organised by Qatar, especially the Asian Cup 2011. QTA will also cover the Australian market over the next year, which will be the first time for a specific promotional campaign to the country by QTA.

The expansion of investments planned in the field of hotel facilities continues, as it seems certain to open 42 hotel facilities by the end of 2010, ranging from hotels and hotel apartments classified with a rough capacity of up to 6,731 rooms and 1,573 hotel units.

With regard to the income of hotels (four- and five-star) for 2010, Al Nuaimi said that revenues of hotel facilities for four and five star hotels operating in the country has seen remarkable growth exceeding the years of 2009 and 2008, where revenues of rooms and revenue of drinks and foods department made the bulk of these revenues.

And due to the increasing number of four- and five-star hotels with high levels of quality and service, statistics show rising revenues of four-star hotels in the first half of 2010 at the rate of QR11m as compared to 2009. As for five-star hotels, they recorded the greater increase of QR100m in the first half of 2010, as compared to 2009. The Peninsula

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