Concerted efforts in boosting Qatar’s tourism and hospitality sector have been yielding positive results. The average revenues of hotels, across all categories, witnessed moderate growth in November 2019 (year-to-date, YTD), with the budget hotels (2&1Star) recording more than 25 percent increase in their revenues—the highest among all categories of hotels— compared to the corresponding period last year.
A double-digit growth (year-on-year) in the number of tourists helped increase in hotels’ occupancy rates as well as the revenue per available room in November 2019 compared to a year ago, latest official data show.
The average revenue of hotels measured by per available room increased to QR244 in November 2019 (YTD), increased by nearly 5.62 percent, or QR13 per available room, compared to QR231 a year ago (November 2018), according to online data available at the Planning and Statistics Authority’s website.
The average occupancy rate of hotels (all categories combined) in November (YTD) also increased by 6 percentage points to 65 percent against 59 percent for the same period last year.
When analyzed by individual categories, data show that in November all categories of hotels registered positive growth in ‘hotel revenues per available room’ by varying degrees with the 2&1-Star hotel rooms seeing the highest growth of 25.84 percent, or QR23 (from QR89 to QR112) per available room.
This was closely followed by 3-Star category hotels which saw their revenue per available room increasing to QR133 in November, up by nearly 9 percent (or QR11) compared to QR122 reported for November 2018.
The average revenue of 4-Star hotels edged-up to QR152 in November 2019 (YTD) against QR145 per available room in the same month last year. While the revenues of 5-Star category hotels increased by 3.42 percent or (QR11 per room) to QR332 in November 2019 compared to QR321 in November 2018.
The overall improvement in the performance of the hotel industry can be mainly attributed to a double-digit increase (year-on-year) in the number of tourists, especially as a result of sharp growth in cruise tourism. According to the latest available data, about 1.86 million people (to be exact 18,61,420) visited Qatar between January and November 2019, registering about 14.5 percent growth compared to 1.62 million visitors during the same period last year. Out of the total 1.86 million visitors during the first 11 months of this year, 1.71 million people arrived by Air and 144,711 entered the country by sea.
It is worth mentioning that as a result of concerted efforts on the part of Qatar’s National Tourism Council, the number of inbound tourists by sea (cruise ships) has witnessed a sharp jump of over 96 percent year-on-year in November against 73,685 people for the same period last year, data reveals.
The Peninsula
06/01/2020
