Qatar To Create 127,000 Tourism Jobs By 2030

Qatar will need around 127,000 hospitality professionals by 2030 to meet the rising demand from its tourism sector, according to a senior official at Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA).

“At present there are only 20,000 hospitality professionals in Qatar,” Hassan Al-Ibrahim, strategy development director at QTA, was quoted as saying in Gulf Times.

“We have arrived at the figure of around 127,000 by 2030 based on the number of hotels that will be coming up in the next few years as well as the number of products and services that we will be providing in the coming years.”

According to QTA, there are currently 81 hotels in Qatar with 110 under construction. Upon completion, they are expected to add around 18,931 rooms to the hospitality sector, which is expected to boost job creation.

“Sectorial human capital development is also a priority of QTA,” said Al Ibrahim.

“With the amount of hotels and other tourism products and services currently under development, Qatar’s hospitality industry will be able to offer young people ambitious roles in international groups to provide a meaningful career path for life.”

In a bid to develop local talent, Qatar has also introduced various hospitality programmes at Stenden University Qatar.

“QTA ‘s strategic priorities include developing the tourism sector through stakeholder engagement and inclusion in implementing the national tourism strategy 2030 and hence we have developed strong relationship with Stenden University Qatar through various initiatives,” said Al Ibrahim.

Qatar will also be hosting a major international tourism conference in February, which will cover major sectors such as business, education, sports, health, environmental and family tourism.

With the Gulf state winning the rights to host the FIFA 2022 World Cup, Qatar is expecting to see a surge in the number of tourists in the years leading to the event.

The hotel occupancy in Qatar during the third quarter of last year rose to 57 per cent owing to an addition of 600 rooms to the market, up 4.73 per cent from the same period in 2012.

Total revenue of four star and five star hotels increased by QAR85.3 million, QTA reported.

Around 90,000 planned hotel rooms are set to become ready before FIFA 2022 and will help build tourism capacity in Qatar, according to a report by Beltone Financial.