Travel in city Doha

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Ramsey, an accomplished professional with academic achievements from the University of Surrey, City University London, and Cornell University in New York, contributes a wealth of two decades’ worth of experience in the premium hospitality sector.

Travel and tourism in the Middle East and Africa region, the focus of another recent region-specific research study by m1nd-set, is experiencing a robust revival, according to the Swiss travel and travel retail research agency.

Qatar Airways is optimistic about Brazil and the overall Latin American market as part of a global network expansion strategy on the heels of World Cup-driven surge for its business.

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates this week revised the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2022 from 6.5 percent to to 7.6 percent. Explaining the reason for the renewed forecast, the bank cited stronger than anticipated performance of non-oil sectors, including tourism, hospitality, real estate, transportation and manufacturing. In its review report for the third quarter, the Central Bank noted that it expects non-oil gross domestic product to grow by 6.1 percent in 2022, compared to its previous estimate of 4.3 percent, while it expected oil gross domestic product to grow by 11 percent in 2022. Explaining the reasons for the steady growth in gross domestic product, the report cited the removal of most Covid-related restrictions, in addition to recovery of the tourism sector, real estate and construction boom, expansion of manufacturing activities, as well as the hosting of global events.

Balloons in the national colours of Israel and Qatar festooned the departure gate for the first commercial flight between the countries on Sunday, permitted by Doha for fans of the World Cup despite the absence of formal bilateral relations.

Hundreds of Moroccan soccer fans desperate to reach Qatar to watch their team become the first from an Arab or African country play in a World Cup semi-final were left stranded on Wednesday as Morocco’s airline scrapped several extra flights.

Iconic World Cup stadiums have long lived in the memory of those who played in and attend the tournament, often standing as a beacon in the backdrop of the host city, but Stadium 974 which held seven games in Doha will soon cease to exist.

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 starts in five days, and Qatar is struggling to have enough lodging to house an expected 1.2 million football fans.

Qatar will allow visitors without football World Cup tickets to enter the country from December 2 after the group stage matches end.

German flag carrier Lufthansa recently launched an advertising campaign around the FIFA World Cup. As part of the initiative, the airline published a one-minute video short called The Great Swap. A camera swoops around distinct cities, airports, streets,and landscapes, showing the alleged biggest jersey swap of all time. 

Etihad Airways looks forward to welcoming over 1.5 million travellers at Abu Dhabi International Airport between November 21 and January 8. Abu Dhabi kicked off a calendar of events with The Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix held between November 17 and 20 last week. Football fans from around the world will also be flocking to the region as the FIFA World Cup started in Doha from Sunday. “Etihad with its partners, is geared up and ready to host 1.5 million expected guests over the next six weeks,” said Shaeb Al Najjar, general manager of hub operations at Etihad Airways.

Qatar has found itself with an unexpected glut of rooms in the World Cup’s busy group stage, with online portals showing rooms in at least 42 hotels and Airbnb offering hundreds of options for this weekend.

The Gulf region now has more than 170,000 hotel rooms under active development, which includes planning, final planning and under construction, according to research conducted at the end of September by STR, a hotel market intelligence and global benchmarking company. This active hotel development pipeline now equals 40 percent of the Gulf region’s existing hotel room inventory, a figure almost four times greater than the global average of 11 percent. The STR report estimates 135,560 existing rooms in Saudi Arabia with an active pipeline of 82,639 rooms, with total room inventory projected for 2030, at over 218,000 rooms. Similarly for the United Arab Emirates, the research currently tracks more than 202,000 existing rooms with an active pipeline of 48,910 rooms, a combined total of almost 251,000 rooms by 2030. “Interestingly, Ras Al Khaimah, is second only to Dubai, with 5,076 rooms in its pipeline, almost the same amount as Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah combined,” said Danielle Curtis, exhibition director of Arabian Travel Market. The research had been commissioned by Arabian Travel Market.

As the 2022 FIFA World Cup draws to a close, Qatar plans to capitalize on the global event’s publicity, visitation numbers and supporting infrastructure as a an opportunity to put the country on the map as a competitive tourist destination moving forward. 

Qatar received just over 765,000 visitors during the first two weeks of the World Cup, according to an organisers’ report obtained by Reuters, falling short of the country’s expectations for an influx of 1.2 million during the month-long event.

Saudi Arabia, which has bid to host the Expo 2030 world fair, is pushing ahead with plans to turn its capital Riyadh into a major global metropolis, a government official said on Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Justice is gathering support for its suit to block the $3.8 billion merger of JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines. The attorney generals of California, Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina signed on to the antitrust regulator’s lawsuit on Friday, the DOJ said in a statement.

Dubai recently suspended a 30 percent tax on alcohol and removed fees for personal alcohol licenses as part of its strategy to make the city more appealing for prospective visitors. Officials in Dubai believe those measures will help it reach its of goal of becoming the world’s most popular tourist destination.

Online travel agency Musafir is on the lookout for acquisitions to fuel growth across the Middle East and India.

Planemakers can’t build them but airlines can’t stop buying them.