Stakeholders hopeful for robust Qatar travel industry in 2023

Key stakeholders and players in Qatar’s travel and tourism sector are hopeful that 2023 would usher in more industry-related activities, such as tours and meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE), among others.
KV Abdul Nazar, chairman & managing director of Akbar Travels of India & Akbar Group, told Gulf Times Tuesday that the movement in the travel and tourism market has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
“There is a post-Covid-19 demand, which is consistent, but still travel has not reached pre-pandemic levels. I hope in this coming year, we would expect high volume group movements, such as shutdown projects, tourism groups, and MICE traffic, as well as wedding groups from India,” Nazar explained.
In the wake of Qatar’s successful hosting of the FIFA World Cup, Nazar noted that the tournament had a positive impact on the performance of the country’s travel and tourism industry as millions of fans and visitors arrived here to witness “the world’s greatest sports event,” which was held for the first time in the Middle East and the Arab world.
“We had very positive results on our bottom lines as we had catered to the demand from our vast network of offices. I am sure it was the same with my industry colleagues; we were all overwhelmed by the demand,” Nazar pointed out.
Nazar also noted that Qatar’s travel and tourism industry performed well for the entire year resulting from the gradual uptick in passenger movement in airports worldwide amid limitations from Covid-19 policies.
“The travel industry is seeing a recovery, which has been termed as ‘revenge travel’. We have seen growing demands for travel to many destinations, which is something positive and it will be an ongoing trend. The World Cup definitely was a demand we had seen coming. Apart from that post-Covid period, we are seeing a surge in travel,” Nazar emphasised.
According to Nazar, while it is too early to gauge if the travel and tourism industry in Qatar has recovered completely from pandemic-related losses, “nevertheless, the World Cup had definitely created a demand for the travel industry.”
He added: “As there is a travel surge worldwide, the ripples will also be seen in Qatar in the coming years, and we are very optimistic about it.”