Qatar’s travel, tourism spending revenues at $16.5bn in 2021: Alpen Capital

Qatar’s travel and tourism spending revenues stood at $16.5bn in 2021, Alpen Capital has said in a report.The hotel room supply in Qatar has expanded at the quickest rate in the GCC, expanding at a CAGR of 10.1% between 2016 and 2021, Alpen Capital said in its ‘GCC Hospitality Report’. The total number of rooms in the country is estimated to have reached 37,085 in 2021, recording an addition of 11,918 rooms since 2016. Qatar “demonstrated resilience” despite the challenging economic conditions and added around 10,243 hotel rooms in 2020 and 2021 alone. As of 2021, the country accounted for 4.5% of the total hotel rooms in the Gulf Co-operation Council region. Several mega projects are currently in the pipeline as the country prepares to host the FIFA World Cup 2022, which is expected to draw 1.2mn tourists from around the world. Qatar’s hotel pipeline for 2022 has been estimated at 13,300 keys with 80% of expected supply designated under a four or five-star hotel category. Following the World Cup, the sharp increase in supply is expected to put downward pressure on occupancy rates; however, the elevated profile provided by hosting the tournament, development of significant tourism infrastructure, lifting of the blockade, and global travel recovery are all expected to support the growth prospects of the tourism sector in Qatar. Apart from hosting the FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar is also vying to host a variety of business forums and conferences as it seeks to establish itself as a business hub in the GCC.Occupancy rates in Qatar are estimated to have reached 71% in 2021, the highest amongst the GCC nations, Alpen Capital said. Also, Qatar is the only GCC country to have reported a growth in the revenue per available room (RevPAR) from $67.8 in 2019 to $78.4 in 2021, even though it dropped to $53.3 in 2020 owing to the pandemic.An Alpen Capital forecast has shown that Qatar’s hospitality industry is estimated to reach $1.6bn in 2022, recording a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 59.8%. This can be primarily attributed to an estimated 325.5% y-o-y growth in tourist arrivals as the country gears up to host the FIFA World Cup 2022, one of the biggest sporting events globally. In the run up to the mega event, more than 1mn visitors are expected to visit the country, which is likely to significantly boost the revenues for the hospitality sector. To accommodate the surge of visitors, Qatar has been aggressively ramping up the hotel industry by adding 105 new hotels to its portfolio of properties and several innovative temporary accommodations (fan villages and camping by the desert) including 16 floating hotels with a total capacity of nearly 1,600 rooms and another 50 new hotels are set to open by the end of 2022, the report said. The occupancy rates are anticipated to rise to record highs of approximately 86% in 2022. Consequently, ADR is expected to witness a 25.7% y-o-y growth in 2022 to reach $139, while the RevPAR is expected to surge by 51.5% y-o-y to $119.Alpen Capital also noted Qatar is positioning itself as the global sporting hub. Its government has launched a promotional campaign targeting 17 visitor source markets as part of the country's tourism strategy to increase tourism’s contribution to GDP to 10% by 2030 and to attract 6mn visitors annually.Qatar also plans to invest $45bn in tourism beyond the FIFA World Cup 2022 and aims to almost double tourism's share of GDP over the next 16 years through investments from government and business, Alpen Capital said.