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Satyendra Pathak
Doha
The hospitality sector in Qatar is witnessing improved occupancy with a continuous rise in the number of tourists visiting the country, Al Asmakh Valuations and Research Director Gaurav Borikar has said.
According to Borikar, the overall occupancy across star hotels in Qatar has increased to 70 percent in the second quarter of 2019 as compared to 67 percent in the previous quarter.
The overall occupancy is rising in spite of the increased supply of hotel rooms, he said.
“Tourism is always a vital factor contributing to the economy in several ways of any country and forming a global image. Tourism is mainly travelling for leisure, business purposes, and family outing usually for a limited period. It can be both inbound and outbound for several countries and this touches the economy of the source as well as the host country,” he said.
Highlighting the relaxation of immigration policies for hassle-free journey as a major factor for the rise in tourists to Qatar, he said, “In view of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar has opened its door to more than 80 countries by awarding hassle-free visa on arrival within minutes of entering the country. The relaxation in immigration norms has paid off by attracting a huge number of visitors to the country.”
Qatar welcomed close to 1 million visitors in the first half of 2019. Asians including Oceania contributed close to 40 percent to total visitors closely followed by visitors from Europe contributing 32 percent to the tally.
The huge number of visitors to the country translates to demand created in the hospitality industry, he said.
“Money spent by tourist flows into the economy in the form of lodging, food and beverages, entertainment, clothes, gifts, and souvenirs, medicines, cosmetics, internal transportation, that may be used by the host country companies to pay for wages, salaries, taxes, premiums, insurance, materials and supplies, interest charges, loan repayments, and others. Hence, earnings through tourism have a major impact on performance of hotels,” he said.
Boost in tourism directly or indirectly creates opportunity for employment generation. Many other industries are associated along with hospitality industry that creates a backbone for promoting tourism.
Foreign exchange: Along with tourism comes the scope for earning foreign revenues. Foreign exchange is linked to the GDP of the country. For the same reasons many countries in the world depend directly on foreign reserves and diversify sources related to attracting tourism.
National publicity: As soon as visitors or tourists return back to their native countries, they start spreading everything about the experience. One of the best ways of promotion considered is word of mouth. This translates to influencing potential tourists who wish to travel to that particular
country.
Cultural exchange: Every community living into coexistence is a result of cultural exchange. The visitors and tourists exchange skill-set, linguistic and ethnic perception, traditional values through various cultural exchange programmes.
The multiplier effect: The tourism industry has a multiplier effect on the economy of the country. The amount spent by the tourist directly routes to the service provider. Later the money received by the travel industry is used to purchase goods and services from the local authorities. Therefore the ever long-lasting impact created by tourism is an organic benefit for any economy.
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09/10/2019
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