21 November 2015
DOHA: Qatar's vibrant tourism sector is expected to witness further boom with a number of tourism and related projects lined up for launch.

Among these projects are a large number of hotels and retail businesses, say several members of trade and industry and investors.

There is a substantial growth in the flow of foreign investment into the country as well as in other countries of the region.

Indications that Qatar's hospitality industry is poised for a further and historic boom are provided by the fact that many US, Turkish and European companies specialising in hotel equipment and furnishings supplies are active here.

Ahmed Husain, from tour and travel trade, said that tourist arrivals have been growing in Qatar considerably due to an increase in the number of places of tourist attraction and means of entertainment.

Qatar Development Bank (QDB) expects the local tourism sector to expand hugely over the next 10 years.

That would immensely boost small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as they would be getting an opportunity to thrive as the tourism industry grows, Husain said.

As the Qatari economy is diversified to help achieve the Qatar National Vision 2030 targets, and to hold the 2022 World Cup, more and more education and sports-related projects would be launched, providing further boost to the SMEs.

Ahmed Al Sheeb, an investor, said that due to political and economic stability in Qatar the tourism sector has been growing. "It hasn't grown less than 15 percent in the past two years," he said.According to a real estate expert, Qatar has taken prudent and gradual steps to ensure that its real estate and tourism sectors grow immensely. The real estate market here has grown by 20 percent, he said.

Mohamed Rashdan whose company supplies hotel equipment, said that he expects a lot of hotel projects to be launched in the country by global and regional companies, which will further bolster the local tourism sector.

© The Peninsula 2015