Doha: Qatar Tourism (QT) sees the recovery of the tourism sector, with a strong performance on the cruise tourism, said a key official.
“Cruise has helped us a lot, the cruise season (December to June) is ramping up,” said QT Chief Operating Officer, Berthold Trenkel on the sidelines of the Qatar Creates press launch on Monday at M7 in Musheireb Downtown Doha. The cruise season returned on the start of 2021/22, and during the first half of it, almost 58,000 passengers and crews were welcomed.
At mid-season, 18 cruise ships had docked at Doha Port with 12 additional cruise calls by the end of the season. Moreover, QT said earlier that the top nationalities to arrive at Doha Port are from Belgium, Brazil, France, India, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. GCC visitors have also grown and is expected to further increase by next year via QT partnership with Emerald Cruises.
Trenkel said that tourists coming in during summer is relatively lower compared to winter, with this, he stressed that Qatar Tourism has special programmes to promote and push the said sector during the summer time. Currently, tourists from neighbouring GCC countries such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait visit the country during this season, as these visitors are coming by car.
A huge number of visitors also flocked the country during Eid in May, and they expect more people coming by next month – in time for the next Eid Al Adha Eid holiday.
The key markets Qatar Tourism is focusing on are North America and Europe as the countries have more relaxed travel restrictions. “When I was on the plane last week, planes are full, and when you go to Hamad International Airport (HIA), it’s busy,” he said.
HIA reported in May that it has witnessed a strong increase in passenger traffic in Q1, 2022, a 162 percent surge compared to the same period in 2021. It served a total of 7.14 million passengers on the said period.
On attracting more transit visitors, he said they will launch a programme by the end of the month, “it should go live in key markets like Australia, and the United Kingdom [because] that’s where the transit traffic mainly comes from.” He stressed that QT is trying to capitalize on stopover campaign.
The peak season starts from November through March and April. By the end of this year, the biggest event happening is the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, prior and after this quadrennial international event, the COO revealed that his team is working on already on the first quarter of 2023. “You will see a lot of events the Qatar Tourism is organising in Q1, because during the World Cup, it will be busy and everything will be sold out.”
When asked if the country’s tourism industry has fully recovered and can be compared to pre-COVID-19 years, Trenkel responded: “not fully yet. That doesn’t have to do with Qatar, that’s to do with different situations, different countries are still dealing with COVID-19, we are the ones that are doing well, and you feel the same when you go to Europe, their life is pretty much back to normal, we hope it stays that way.”
