UAE SCORES A GOAL A CORNUCOPIA OF OPPORTUNITIES

The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, besides being a mega event with billions of fans all over the world, is also set to achieve a number of firsts. It is the first international football tournament to be held in the Middle East. With the coverage and popularity the sport enjoys, the event promises to give a further boost to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies, none more so than the UAE.

According to industry experts, most analysts are already highlighting the near or full capacity levels of the UAE’S major local and international hotel chains. Furthermore, this trend is expected to persist or even increase during the four-week football tournament, boosted by advance bookings in the months of November and December.

For the UAE, the situation seems familiar and is reminiscent of the conditions prevalent during Expo 2020 Dubai. In fact, hotels in Dubai and Abu Dhabi expect occupancy levels to be between 80 per cent to 100 per cent, with strong demand trends similar to those recorded during the peak period of Expo 2020 Dubai.

Elaborating further on this, Guy Hutchinson, President and Chief Executive of the Uae-based hotel operator Rotana, said: “We are expecting our occupancy in the mid to high 90s across Dubai and we are expecting performance in Dubai in the fourth quarter to be the same as the performance [in the] fourth quarter in 2021 when we had the Expo 2020 Dubai.”

Speaking from the angle of the overall GCC region, the UAE stands to benefit the most as it is the Gulf region’s popular travel and tourism centre. According to hospitality industry reports, the country is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the mega sporting event, which begins on November 20.

According to a report by S&P Global, titled ‘World Cup will give an additional near-term boost to the GCC’, more than 1.2 million fans are expected to attend the event. With the UAE enjoying close proximity to the event and due to the limited capacity of Qatar, the report says that Dubai will be one of the major beneficiaries outside of Qatar, given its geographical proximity, a well-established tourism offering, flight connections and multiple-entry tourist visas for World Cup ticket holders.

With the aim to cash in on this influx of visitors, in May, the Dubai carrier flydubai said it will offer up to 30 daily return flights from Dubai World Central (DWC) to Doha during the tournament. Meanwhile, Air Arabia will be operating 14 shuttle flights daily from Sharjah to Doha.

With Expo 2020 Dubai already having boosted the country’s international visibility—leading to increased demand for hotel rooms, the hospitality and tourism industry is well-placed to handle the new global event taking place on its shores. In continuation of this, the S&P report expects occupancy to remain high and hotel are expected to be at close to full capacity. It must be noted here that Dubai’s hotel capacity is three times that of Qatar, making it the prime target for most of the football enthusiasts who will be planning to watch all the action.

According to a report by Alpen Capital, it is expected that the FIFA World Cup will draw 1.2 million tourists to Qatar, pushing the country’s hotel supply pipeline for 2022 alone to about 13,300 rooms, with 80 per cent of these falling under the four or five-star hotel category. However, with hotels in Qatar fully booked in the run-up to the game, hotels in the UAE are expected to record a rise in demand for accommodation of up to 40 per cent, according to a report by online travel agency Musafir. com. In such a scenario, the movement of visitors will be supported through shuttle flights, operated by regional airlines from Gulf cities on match days and multiple-entry tourist visas for fans attending the matches. The sentiment was echoed by Jan Hanak, the Managing Director at Radisson Hotel Group for the UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar, who said: “The region is buzzing with travellers coming from Europe and the Middle East to watch the event. We have already started seeing incredibly positive performance across our hotels and we are certain there will be a multi-destination travel trend that will be seen across the region this winter.” He signed off by saying that Radisson expects occupancy rates to exceed 80 per cent across its hotels in the fourth quarter

of 2022, especially in the UAE, owing to the advent of the winter months when high occupancy rates are generally a norm.

Co-operation between government entities and private operators on logistics — ranging from shuttle flights to visas for fans — is further expected to deliver a seamless travel experience for visitors across the Gulf.

The World Cup has created an air of optimism in the travel sector, leading to a major upswing in hotel bookings across the UAE from November onwards. Industry experts are predicting near full occupancy during the tournament with bookings of 50-100 people at a time being made by football fans. With Qatar Airways having signed deals with flydubai and Air Arabia and offering 45 shuttle flights daily, Dubai has positioned itself as a hub for travel and will give a huge boost to the tourism sector. In addition to diversifying the economy, the football tournament will aid the UAE in attracting foreign investment as well, which will not be limited onto to aviation and hospitality sectors. In fact, there is expected to be a ‘domino effect’ with the retail sector standing to gain too, further boosting small- and mediumsized businesses both in the B2C and B2B categories.

The real estate sector will see a major uptick as well with owners turning their homes to short-term rentals to cash in

on the opportunity.