Last week it has been announced Qatar will host the famous soccer tournament – FIFA World Cup 2022. This means the increased number of tourists will visit this Middle East country during the tournament days, so hotel inventory should be also expanded.
According to the reports of the local officials, new hotels in Qatar will be built within next years. The hotels will be primarily 3- and 4-star categories as this class of accommodations is not widespread in the country. Currently there are only around 4,000 guest rooms that fall under this category. Upscale and luxury hotels are represented only a little better as the total number of rooms in 5-star hotels only slightly exceeds the same 4,000.
According to Qatar Tourism Authority, in order to serve all tourists who will come to support the teams of their countries, sportsmen teams and press, around 90,000 rooms should be operating by 2022.
Currently the occupancy level in Qatar hotels reaches 61% for first 6 months of 2010 and 59% for 2009.
The hoteliers find the market of this Middle East country very attractive. Only during 2010 28 new hotels from 42 properties scheduled for opening will be opened here. Such delays are caused by price renegotiations because of the global economic and financial crisis.