The Middle East occupies a special place in international tourism. On the one hand, it is very dynamic and has a number of attractive tourist factors, such as an advantageous geopolitical position, a relatively developed tourist infrastructure, a wealth of natural, climatic, historical and cultural resources. But, on the other hand, socio-political instability, security threats have a very unfavorable effect on the tourist regional image.

Oil, the main Middle Eastern wealth, provides a constant influx of funds, thanks to which a high standard of living and its accompanying pleasures are not uncommon here: first-class hotels and restaurants, entertainment centers, magnificent museums and galleries, high-quality shopping.

64 million tourists visited the Middle East in 2019.
The Middle East became the fastest growing region in terms of the number of international tourist trips in 2019, almost double the global average (+8%).

The hospitality sector in the country shows growth associated with initiatives taken by the government and a number of global and local events, such as sporting events, exhibitions, gastronomic festivals, growing demand for recreation, cruise business, the growth of travelers from the Persian Gulf countries and more. The volume of offers in the hotel sector by the end of 2022 exceeded 44,000 rooms, which is almost 50% more than the previous year's offer of 30,000 rooms.


Key indicators:
12.1% - the average growth of the Qatar hospitality market
70% - 4-star and 5-star hotels prevail
5.6 million tourists visit the country annually
$ 12.3 billion - the contribution of travel and tourism to the country's GDP will reach (8.7% annual growth)
$ 11 billion - Qatar's tourism spending
$4 billion / 4.25% of GDP - investments in travel and tourism in Qatar have been achieved (7.8% annual growth)

Qatar's national strategy for the period up to 2030 provides for an increase in the contribution of the tourism sector to GDP by 12% by 2030. Qatar's Tourism Development Strategy until 2030, which is an important factor in the country's socio-economic growth, supports this goal by setting an ambitious goal to attract more than 6 million foreign tourists by 2030. Industry forecasts note that the growth in the number of projects continues after the 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup, with plans underway to build 20 more hotels in 2023 and 6 more in 2024, among them several new resorts and modern leisure facilities in addition to the continued improvement of the restaurant and cafe chain in terms of size and project quality.

All covid restrictions were lifted on 03/31/2023.
Passengers who have been in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Macau for the last 5 days must have a negative result of a PCR test for COVID-19, issued no more than 48 hours before departure from the first boarding point.

The information is current as of 05/12/2023