Qatar’s Tourism Law – an overview

By David Salt and Emma Higham/DohaAs Qatar prepares itself to host the 2019 Athletics Championships and the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the development of its hospitality and leisure sector has attracted a great deal of attention both from Qatari nationals and international investors who are working together, often in partnership, to provide the necessary sector requirements for both events. The Tourism Law, which regulates travel and tourism agencies, the hospitality industry, including hotels and resorts, as well as tourism facilities, tourism activities and tourist guides, is of particular interest therefore. This article summarises some of the main provisions of the Tourism Law.Tourism LawLaw No (6) of 2012 (Tourism Law), superseding Law No (7) of 1982, took effect on August 18, 2012. The Tourism Law requires all hotels, their facilities and services to be licensed by the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA); the activities pertaining to hotels are regulated by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC). The QTA imposes a classification regime for hotels based on the facilities and services they provide to be evaluated at the beginning of each year. Hotels will be licensed for three-year periods while tourism facilities will receive one-year licences. The Tourism Law also provides for a new profession, the “Tourist Guide”, and imposes a one-year licence requirement on the profession. Implementing by-laws and/or executive regulations are to be proposed and amended by the President of the QTA from time to time. At this time the new executive regulations are awaiting approval; existing by-laws and/or executive regulations still remain in force.  CategoriesThe Tourism Law defines and regulates different categories of hospitality installations and activities. The Hotel Installations category includes hotels, tourist resorts, hotel apartments, tourist camps, floating hotels and tourist cruise liners. The Tourism Installations category includes entertainment installations and clubs in addition to offices providing tourist services and transportations, tourist guides and timeshare services. The Tourism Activities category includes tourist transportation activities and related, specialised tourist transportation methods (including by land and sea) and tourist guides. LicensingThe Tourism Law prohibits the unlicensed construction of any hotel or tourist installation or practice of any tourism activity. Licensing is regulated by the QTA which is responsible for evaluating and approving or rejecting licence applications within 30 days of submission.As stated above, following final approval licences are issued for three years in the case of Hotel Installations and one year for Tourism Installations and Activities. Licences can be renewed for one or more periods of the same duration with licence fees to be set by the MEC. The MEC has the discretion and authority to suspend the issuance of new licences for periods of up to six months with additional six-month suspension periods being subject to the approval of the Counsel of Ministers.Licensee ObligationsThe Tourism Law sets out a number of obligations with which a licensee must comply, eg. a licensee may not make any changes to the licensed facilities or installations without QTA approval. Additionally, a licensee may not make any changes to a licensed installation’s trade name, ownership or management without first notifying the QTA. Other licensee obligations include providing customers with line-item bills, taking necessary environmental protection measures and obtaining any required licences from other government entitles with respect to the activities taking place on the premises as appropriate. The Tourism Law requires licensees to provide the QTA with their tourism marketing and promotional programs and related implementation details no less than 15 days prior to the publication of such programmes (the programme details to be kept confidential by the QTA). Licensees are also obliged to provide the QTA with copies of any agreements with other hotel and tourism installations within or outside Qatar.   A number of other obligations relating to prominent display of licence certificate and price schedules (in Arabic and English) in addition to accurate bookkeeping are also required under the Tourism Law. Classification Under the Tourism Law, hotels and tourism installations will be classified into different grades based on a classification guide to be issued by the President of the QTA. Each installation must prominently display the grade it has been given. Re-classification requests can be made to the QTA at the beginning of each year. Tourist GuidesThe Tourism Law introduced provisions covering the licensing and regulation of the tourist guide profession for the first time. All tourist guides must be licensed in compliance with the licensing procedures, terms and requirements set out by the QTA. Initial and renewal licence fees, together with tourist guide salaries and the number of licences to be issued per tourist area, are to be set by the MEC. PenaltiesAn issued licence may be suspended for a number of reasons including any of the following:lFailure to conduct the licensed activity for a continuous six-month period.lOperating outside the scope of the issued licence.lFailure to meet one of the licence conditions.lThe total or partial destruction of the building housing the installation.lRe-locating the installation without notifying the QTA.lFinal court order closing the installation.  In addition to closure of the installation which is the subject of the breach, the penalties for breach include imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to QR100,000 or both.QTA decisions may be appealed to the president of the authority within 30 days of receiving such decisions with the president ruling on the appeal within 15 days of filing such appeal. The QTA president’s decision is final.lllNote: All Qatari laws (save for those issued by, eg. the QFC to regulate its own business) are issued in Arabic and there are no official translations, therefore for the purposes of drafting this article, Clyde & Co LLP has used its own translation and interpreted the same in the context of Qatari laws, regulation and current market practice.♦ Should you have any questions in connection with this article or the legal issues it covers, please contact David Salt david.salt@clydeco.com or Emma Higham Emma.Higham@clydeco.com of Clyde & Co LLP.