Al-Ibrahim and Wooller shaking hands at the ceremony as al-Ansari looks on.

QTA closely monitors tourist accommodation establishments to ensure its partners in the private sector are meeting market needs without overdeveloping the sector

By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter


Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) has partnered with leading data provider STR Global to give hotels across the country access to timely data and in-depth analysis on their individual performance and how they fared with competitors.
“STR Global’s ‘standardised worldwide platform’ will help hoteliers understand market trends as well as assess their performance vis-a-vis international benchmarks,” QTA’s chief tourism and development officer Hassan al-Ibrahim said yesterday.
Speaking at the agreement signing ceremony, he explained that the most important part of the partnership is the decision-making process.
“Both the public sector and private entities will boost their collective efforts to make more informed decisions not only on annual reports but also daily reports. It will provide analysis that enables us to see changes in supply and demand from season to season, month to month and even day to day,” he said.
Previously, QTA used to do the process manually by collecting and verifying information with some sources to ensure that data are accurate.
Al-Ibrahim noted that they would now be able to automate this process, citing STR Global’s capability to extract information from the property management system (PMS).
“It will also remove the burden of special-request and sometimes duplicative reporting to QTA that hotel establishments have carried,” he added.
According to the QTA official, hotels use the PMS system to do their booking and measure revenues. It is also a tool that property owners use to check their performance.
Part of the agreement says that STR Global will gather and supply data on key performance indicators including occupancy, revenue per available room and average room rate. It will also provide data on food and beverage revenue, average length of stay, and deliver analysis directly to hotels and QTA.
“Our regulation efforts involve ensuring tourism establishments operate at the highest standards while promoting and perpetuating Qatar’s culture,” al-Ibrahim added.
QTA closely monitors tourist accommodation establishments to ensure its partners in the private sector are meeting market needs without overdeveloping the sector.
Reiterating the importance of the new vehicle to measure performance, he urged members of the hospitality industry to continue submitting their statistics through STR, saying the results will benefit them and the entire sector.
STR Global’s Middle East and Africa area director Philip Wooller cited QTA’s critical role in boosting tourism which significantly contributes to the country’s economy.
“The hotel sector is an important element in the plan,” he stressed while observing that Qatar’s commitments to the 2022 World Cup, National Vision 2030 and beyond triggered a substantial growth in the country’s tourism.
“With significant growth projected in the Qatari hotel industry, it is great to see an organisation committed to optimising the hotel offerings that the destination provides,” Wooller noted.
“STR Global looks forward to contributing to that effort by providing QTA and Qatar’s hospitality sector with performance data measurements and analysis of hotel trends.”
STR Global is the world’s foremost source of hotel performance trends on a daily, weekly and monthly basis with more than 50,000 participating properties.
QTA’s head of licensing Mohamed al-Ansari was  present at the ceremony. Page 5