By Sachin Kumar
DOHA: Hotels in Qatar had an average occupancy of around 67 percent in December last year helped by tourist inflow from GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries.
January of last year was the best month for hotels as occupancy was around 84 percent, highest in the year.
Four-star hotels saw the highest occupancy and three-star hotels the lowest.
According to the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics, four-star hotels had an occupancy of 72 percent in December 2015 while it was 62 percent for three-star hotels. The occupancy rate of five-star hotels was 64 percent while one and two-star hotels saw an occupancy of 69 percent in December last year.
December, January, February and March are usually busy months in Qatar in terms of tourists because of cooler weather and many cultural and business events take place, attracting visitors from across the globe.
On the contrary, July and June span the lean season when hotels receive lesser number of guests. The hotel occupancy rate was between 55 percent and 65 percent in June and July last year.
In January 2015, four-star hotels saw the highest occupancy of around 88 percent while five-star hotels had the lowest of 81 percent. The occupancy rate of three-star hotels was 85 percent while one and two-star hotels had 82 percent occupancy in January last year. A chunk of visitors to Qatar was from GCC countries.
According to the latest figures, there were around 1.3 million visitors from these countries in December last year, while 274,530 visitors came from other Arab countries.
In 2015, some 2.93 million tourists visited Qatar, a 3.7 percent rise from last year. Experts say that the number of visitors is bound to increase significantly in the coming years as government agencies are taking major steps to boost tourism.
Going forward, more hotels are expected to open their operations in Qatar to meet the demand of increasing number of tourists.
Qatar’s hospitality sector is expected to see total count of room keys rising to 23,000 by the end of 2016, registering a growth of 27 percent. At the moment there are close to 19,000 hotel and service apartment keys in Qatar. The hotel sector in Qatar sees more of its business travellers, as Doha is predominantly a business destination, with the corporate segment accounting for more than 60 percent of the hotel demand. The Peninsula
