Hospitality in Qatar (Qatar 2022 Hospitality Infrastructures)

HOSPITALITY IN QATAR: QATAR 2022 HOSPITALITY INFRASTRUCTURES Name: Institution of Affiliation: Date Hospitality in Qatar: Qatar 2022 Hospitality Infrastructures Introduction In 2011, FIFA announced Qatar as the winning host for FIFA World Cup 2022. Since then, all Qatar looks like an open workshop, a country under construction in all aspects of modern life infrastructure. The country is building multi-billion rail stations and railways, new cities such as Lusail, three orbit roads, hundreds of bridges and subways, the large number of world class shopping malls and the proposed construction of ten world-class stadiums. Qatar is very well known for its high level of hospitality standards inspired by the Arab culture. However, hosting hundreds of thousands of football fans from all over the world is something different. It requires massive preparation especially with the hospitality infrastructure such as hotels, restaurants, and recreational facilities. According to Anderson et al. (2009) hotels, facilities, and attractions are the three most important pillars of tourism in any travel destination. This article spotlights on the popular hospitality outlets and infrastructures expected and needed for Qatar 2022. History and Culture Background Qatar is a small peninsula country located on the western shores of the Arabian Gulf. It covers approximately 6286km with a rectangular land mass formation. Bahrain also neighbors Qatar to the northwest, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to the south and also Iran to the northeast. A 1998 research states that the population was estimated to be 579,000 with 91.4% living in the urban areas. Of this population, it's said that approximately 20% are Qatari while the other population is made up of foreign workers. Their official language is Arabic and as Arabic is associated with the Islam faith; most Qataris are Muslims. The Qatar economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Doha is the capital city, and it is home to almost 80.1% of the country's population. Its cityscapes attempt to fuse both modern and traditional housing culture. The government undertook a major land reclamation project to create excellent waterfront properties hence it's recognized as a major engineering feat and at the same time symbolizing the country's economic and technological advancements (Agy, 2016). In Qatar, socializing is conducted in a respectful manner where family privacy, gender separation, and hospitality are taken seriously. When there are visits from people one is not related to; the meetings occur outside the house or in specifically designated areas that are not used regularly by the family. People do not inquire unnecessarily about another person's family. It is also considered rude not to extend hospitality to strangers, and on the converse, it is rude to decline and not accept hospitality. Tourism and Hospitality Background In Qatar, the hospitality industry has played a great role in the process of achieving the Qatar National vision's (QNV 2030) objectives which have been enhanced through the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA). Qatar has also adopted a very comprehensive approach to address sustainability within the tourism industry scope, laying emphasis on creating a dependable hospitality sector in the country. In parallel with QNV 2030 and 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar has put plans to spend around $200 billion in infrastructural projects for this major event (Agy, 2016). The designated high-end projects have received help and flagships from well-defined plans, happening through a series of programs, project enterprises and also government policies which are developed in the order of international practices, following a national consultancy process. All these strategies are in the central effort to ensuring Qatar's development as sustainable through the reduction of reliance on resources that tend to pollute the environment on an aggravated scale, e.g. hydrocarbons, while also placing the country on the global hospitality map. The efforts will help tourism by promoting its inhabitants culture, traditions, and values (Coelen, 2014). Through the Qatar Tourism Authority, the government has been able to enact its mission of planning, developing, promoting and regulating sustainable tourism by aiming to drive the economy and its development socially. It also plays a key role in promoting Qatar as a destination for business, culture, sports, medical care and an entertainment hub. The QTA is also the principal custodian of the hospitality and tourism industry in the country given the role of regulating and organizing events around the country, the region, and even the world. It has a vision where it believes in the striving to realize the development of Qatar into a world-class economic hub enrooted into its hospitable facilities (Qatar Tourism Authority, 2015). The Qatar Tourism Authority has its dream in making Qatar an environmentally friendly economy hence it has since been indulging in different activities, laying the necessary backgrounds to facilitate income that would sustain the population. This has also helped Qatar diversify its option on sustainable economic development where it reduces its reliance considerably in energy resources, inhibiting it from market fluctuations that can impact a significant positive growth in Qatar's GDP (Turner, 2015). Qatar has a realistic goal on what it takes to be a leading tourism destination. It has a lot to offer in hospitality even though there is a challenge to success over attracting attention to and marketing the tourism they offer. From museums and sand dunes overlooking unsullied beaches, traditional foods and soups, world-class sports arenas and theaters, luxury retail malls, exhibitions and conference facilities, Qatar is indeed one of the unique tourist destinations in the globe. All these and others have lead to Qatar being named one of the award winning destinations in the world. Furthermore, to top it on the tourism development plans this government will be implementing, the country will be set to host major events of both regional and international essence. Qatar is the home for quarters like the UNICEF and the UNHCR hence this will magnify the quality of the tourism sector in Qatar and also furnish it making it attract more and more tourist as the world's leading destination of choice (Qatar Tourism Authority, 2015). The Gulf Times 2016 believes that Qatar is in rapid development in almost all sectors. One of these areas is the hospitality. The country had limited number of hotels till the late 90s, there was only Sheraton and Doha Marriott Gulf Hotel as five stars hotels, while there was few 4 and three stars hotels in the city. Due to the rapid development, Qatar witnessed the launch of many new hotels in the last 15 years, such as W Hotel, Movenpick, Marriott Courtyard, Marriott Renaissance, Intercontinental, Grand Hyatt, Hilton, Retaj, Kempinsky, among many others (GPPC, 2016). The country has structured various projects in place to act as effective measures in becoming an avenue to host international events where the FIFA 2022 World Cup happens to be among the greatest. On 2nd December 2010, Sep Blatter, the then FIFA President announced that Qatar would host the event in 2022. This is because the bid was made for Qatar to represent the Arab League countries whereby, of the 22 Arab countries, none had hosted this highly excited event. This has led to many platforms getting laid out to create facilities and the necessary infrastructure that could cater for the anticipated high number of tourists. Hoteliers have already taken a step further to help create room for the incoming event. Nearly 121 accommodation projects are ongoing with around 46 being apartments for hotels. These are expected to add an approximate of 21,000 in rooms after completion. The hotel apartments are planned to contribute to about 5,200 rooms in total to cater for lengthier staying visitors. According to the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), revenue from five-star hotels in the second quarter of 2013 surged to over $210 million, up from $183 million in the same period of 2012. Four-star hotels, on the other hand, revenues of up to $50.8 million were reported in the same quarter of 2013, which is a slight increase compared to 2012 where there was $48 million in revenues. The mentioned revenues were due to higher hotel occupancy ratios whereby on average; the rate was 50% in 2012, which saw an increment of up to 67% in 2013. This was despite the slumps in the hotel industry more significant during the month of June due to the hot temperatures. Over 61,000 visitors arrived in Qatar between April and June of 2013. Of whom a majority were there for business, an approximate of about 43,000. In the previous year (2012), the second quarter witnessed an inflow of more than 57,300 whereby visitors there for business claimed around 41,000. An average of more than 239,000 visitors from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) visited Qatar, which is an increase of about 15% compared to the 200,000 in the previous year (Soman, 2013). Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: Existing Hotel Supply of the year 2013 in Qatar (QTA, 2014) The hospitality market also experienced the launch of many hotel apartments' buildings in affluent areas in Doha such as The Pearl-Qatar and the Zigzag towers. According to Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA, 2015), the country has 15,256 hotel rooms available in the market from 3, 4, and five stars hotels and apartments, which formulates together the amount of 127 hospitality facilities (QTA, 2015). Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2: Forthcoming hotel supply 2013 - 2017 in Qatar (QTA, 2014) The main concern for this article is the fact that some Qatar hotel rooms are not enough for the activities being hosted by Qatar. Also, as per forecast of the QTA above (Figure 2) Qatar will still face shortages of hotel rooms due to the increasing number of business travelers and the country's increased demand as a hub for international and national events and other forms of business travels. Figure 2 above shows that even the potential and forecasted development is not enough. In 2017, Qatar will have 26,135 hotel rooms; this is not enough for the development and growth that Qatar is expecting. According to the Gulf Times published on December 2013, Qatar needs approximately 90 thousand rooms by the year of 2022 to be able to host the World Cup without noticeable problems in accommodation. Qatar is currently planning on matching the demand of this infrastructure concerning the current situation. According to a statistics provided by Qatar National News Agency (2014), "In 2009, Doha had a total supply of 49 hotels, comprising 8,509 keys, approximately 47% of which was unaffiliated or independent. By quarter 2 2014, this increased to 74 hotels and 13,595 keys representing an increase of 60% over the same period. If the unaffiliated hotels are excluded, Doha's branded hotel market grew by over 80% from 16 branded hotels in 2009 to 29 in quarter 2 2014". It is noticeable that the upscale and luxury accommodation hotels are the most increased in capacity by more than of 102% increase for the last five years. This means that the targeted population or market share desired is not proposed for the medium and less than four stars Hotels (Deloitte, 2015). Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 3: Hotel Supply and Demand Growth, Doha, 2008 to 2014 (August 2014) (Deloitte; 2015, p. 5) This means that the main aim for the Qatar's strategic infrastructure behavior is to answer the demand of the worl...