Continued inbound arrival is expected to spur international tourism receipts for Qatar, which is expected to reach nearly $11.9bn by 2020, BMI Research has said in a new report.

This “healthy” rise, the Fitch Group company said, can be attributed to strengthening economies in the key source markets of Europe, and America as people have more “disposable” income and Qatar becomes a “better-known” holiday destination with more retail and other tourism infrastructure in place.
Continued investments in retail facilities and luxury hotels will also help attract high-spending tourists from both regional and non-regional source markets, and boost international receipts received as a whole.
International receipts are expected to increase in line with the increase in inbound arrivals and outbound departures over 2016. As higher numbers of tourists travel into and out of the country there will be an increase of approximately 7.2% in money spent in this sector across two different segments.
The first segment is travel items, expenditures by international inbound visitors in the reporting economy, which will reach $4.1bn over 2016. Transport receipts are expected to reach $5.1bn in 2016 and rise to $6.2bn by 2020 as new infrastructure comes into use.
In terms of domestic tourism market, BMI said the total number of outbound departures in 2016 is forecast at 1.7mn, of which just under 1.1mn will head to Saudi Arabia, followed by the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Turkey. Travel into the neighbouring UAE should see increase by as much as 24.7% over the forecast period.
“Despite regional tensions and a fall in the price of oil (which may see inter-regional investment stymied in the short term whilst budgets are tightened), neighbouring countries will remain the major destinations for Qatari travellers,” BMI said.
By 2020, the total outbound departures will reach 2.5mn with 1.8mn heading to Saudi Arabia, it said. Future growth of outbound departures by region is unevenly split, with Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East all set to enjoy stellar growth whilst Africa, North America, and Latin America suffer declines or substantially s lower increases.
As a country of “wealthy travellers”, Qatar remains a “popular” target for tourism boards in other countries, the report noted.
A combination of the weak euro, increased demand for luxury travel and increased investment in European markets is behind the boos t in numbers there, whilst a change of emphasis towards Asia Pacific markets and the strong dollar may explain the drop in North American travel, BMI said.