Airfares and Hotel Tariffs Skyrocket for Qatar World Cup Period
Date: July 2022
Location: Qatar
What Did They Say: Fans from around the world panic as airfares, hotel tariffs skyrocket for Qatar World Cup season
Who They: Arabian Business magazine
Main photo: Admares thought they had it cracked with bringing in 16 floating hotels
Football fans from around the world, including from the Indian sub-continent – both residents and those living around the world – are scrambling to find affordable airline tickets and hotel accommodations in Qatar for the World Cup, as airfares and room tariffs are skyrocketing and hard to get, fans and industry executives said.
The surging rush has spilled over to neighbouring Dubai, pushing up airfares and hotel rates for advance bookings in city hotels and airline feeder services to Doha for the World Cup season, which will get kicked off from November 21, 2022.
“We have seen a 344 percent increase in searches and 163 percent increase in advance bookings in the last three weeks [for the World Cup in Qatar],” Atish Thapa, business head, Middle East at Cleartrip, the leading online travel agency (OTA) in UAE, told Arabian Business.
People from the UK, the US, India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Tunisia, are seen as front runners for buying tickets to Qatar,” Thapa said.
Senior executives at other leading travel services companies and hospitality firms also confirmed the surging demand and spiralling costs for travel and stay in Doha and other cities in Qatar for November to December FIFA World Cup season.
“Room tariffs have shot up to $200-$250 per night in 4-star hotels and between $100-$200 in lower star hotels, while air tickets from India to Doha is currently going for $400-$450 per person,” Amit Udani, executive director at Fly Aerolink Travel, a leading Mumbai-based travel service provider, told the magazine. THPT: See comment below…probably nearer $1500 per night!
“The rates – both airfares and hotel tariffs – are going up by the hours and days,” said Udani, whose firm provides bookings for air tickets and hotel accommodations for clients.
“Even these rooms are available only if one books for a minimum 7-10 day period. Bookings for one night are just not available in Qatar,” Udani said.
He said clients now insist on hotel reservations also at the time of booking air tickets to Doha for the World Cup, as they do not want to be stuck for lack of stay arrangements at the time of travel.
With all eight stadiums situated in and around Doha – within an hour or travel – match tickets have been getting sold like hot cakes, reaching a sale of 1.8 million as of June 29, according to media reports.
Many Indian football fans, who have been making plans to watch live a few World Cup matches in Qatar from last year itself, are finding themselves in a spot now, with the doubling and tripling of travel and staying costs.
“Getting visa was a major problem while we were going for the Moscow World Cup last time, but this time we are taken aback by the surging costs for travel and stay in Qatar. We are even contemplating to stay in Dubai where both travel and stay costs are affordable if reservations are done now,” a resident of Kochi, Kerala, told Arabian Business.
Cleartrip’s Thapa said the bookings for Qatar have shown a sharp increase from all GCC domains after the introduction of feeder flights.
He said Flydubai will operate 60 flights per day from Dubai, while Kuwait Airways, Oman Air and Saudia will operate 20, 48 and 40 flights per day respectively, just for the FIFA season.
Thapa said the World Cup-related demand for travel and staying has spilled over to Dubai and Sharjah, with many fans opting for travelling from these cities to Doha for watching the matches.
“We have seen an increased booking into the UAE for the month of November from various European and South Asian countries,” Thapa said.
He said while flights take only one hour 15 minutes to reach Doha from the UAE, airfares have been skyrocketing following the increased demand for flight tickets.
Industry executives said with more flights from UAE to Doha being added by Flydubai and Air Arabia, there’s partial relief for anyone wanting to fly to Qatar for the FIFA World Cup.
“This rate drop would, however, be short-lived, as the lower fares are only available for a limited number of seats. The prices will go up again once these tickets are sold out,” Thapa said.
Industry players said private jet operators are also seeing heavy demand for travel during the World Cup.
With almost a three-fold increase in charter and private jet demand from Dubai to Doha alone, DC Aviation Al-Futtaim has announced it will offer charter flights from Dubai to support its teams there.
Depending on the jet’s size, the cost for a private charter varies from about $18,000 for a 4 – 6 seater plane to $30,000 for 10 to 12-seater planes for a return flight, Thapa said.
THPT Comment: We looked on a well-known OTA site today, for a six night stay first week December and were quoted from £69,720 at Bin Hamad Villa, 11,000 sqf but just one bedroom to £4,432 for a one-bed apartment, 807 sqf at the not star-rated Lavender Residence 1.5 miles from the centre…only five hotel options….OK so all host cities get pretty overbooked and produce extortionate rates…but as the whole tournament is so concentrated around the one city, Doha/Qatar will be more so. Flydubai is at least helping Dubai get some of the action
First Seen: Arabian Business
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