Deluxe hotel apartments and four-star hotels in Qatar see improved room yield in July: NPC

Qatar’s hospitality sector saw improved (year-on-year) room yield in July 2024, particularly in the deluxe hotel apartments and four-star hotels; amidst jump in visitors, especially from Europe, the Americas and the Gulf region, according to the official data.The country’s hospitality sector saw a 7.35% year-on-year surge in room yield to QR219 in July 2024 as occupancy by 6% to 58%; but average room rate fell 4.09% to QR375, according to the figures released by National Planning Council (NPC).The four-star hotels room yield improved by 7.21% on a yearly basis to QR119 as the occupancy increased by 10% to 60%, even as the average room rate shrank 10.81% to QR198 in July 2024.However, the five-star hotels' room yield tanked 3.25% year-on-year to QR277 as average room rate were lower by 6.51% to QR546, even as occupancy grew 5% to 51% in the review period.The three-star hotels' room yield fell 2.52% on an annualised basis to QR116 this July as average room rate decreased by 7.78% to QR154 amidst 4% jump in occupancy to 75%.The two-star and one-star hotels reported 12.4% year-on-year contraction in room yield to QR113 as the average room rate shrank 4.2% to QR137 and the occupancy by 7% to 83% in July this year.The deluxe hotel apartments registered a 23.78% year-on-year surge in room yield to QR229 as occupancy improved 12% to 69% and average room rate by 2.45% to QR334 in July 2024.In the case of standard hotel apartments, room yield plummeted 33.33% on an annualised basis to QR108 in July 2024 with occupancy plunging 28% to 49% even as average room rate shot up 4.27% to QR220.Doha saw as many as 317,459 visitor arrivals in July 2024, growing 10.2% and 0.4% on yearly and monthly basis respectively in the review period. Visitors are those non-residents travelling to Qatar on a short-term basis for all purposes, including arrivals at borders under 15 different visit visa classes and also include business and leisure visa types while excluding work visas.The visitor arrivals from the Gulf Co-operation Council or GCC were 146,600 or 46% of the total; followed by other Asia (including Oceania) 66,340 (21%), Europe 54,417 (17%), the Americas 22,884 (7%), other Arab countries 20,383 (6%) and other African countries 6,835 (2%) in July 2024.On an annualised basis, the visitor arrivals from European countries were seen soaring 28.6%, the Americas by 18.1%, the GCC by 8.7%, other Asia (including Oceania) by 3.2% and other Arab countries by 1.6%; while those from other African countries were down 2.5% and other Arab countries by 1.6% in July 2024.On a month-on-month basis, the visitor arrivals from Europe shot up 18% and the Americas by 8.4%; even as those from other Asia (including Oceania) declined 7.1%, other African countries by 6%, other Arab countries by 5.2% and the GCC by 1.6% in the review period.