Qatar welcomed 600,000 visitors in November: tourism authority

Qatar welcomed 600,000 visitors into the small Gulf country in November, when the 2022 World Cup tournament kicked off.

2 min read

27 December, 2022

The World Cup began on 20 November and came to an end on 18 December [Getty]

Qatar received 600,000 visitors in November, when the 2022 World Cup kicked off in the country, according to Qatar’s tourism authority.

The Gulf country welcomed travellers from all over the world, as people from Saudi Arabia (24 percent), India (16 percent), the USA (13 percent), the UK (12 percent) and Mexico (10 percent), made up the highest portions of international visitors during the month.

Visitors from Argentina (7 percent), Egypt (5 percent), Iran (5 percent), Morocco (4 percent) and France (4 percent) were also from the top ten visiting countries.

#Qatar welcomes over 600,000 international visitors in November, capturing the first 2 weeks of the FIFA World Cup™. #QatarTourism pic.twitter.com/cnY7iZIzDF
— قطر للسياحة – Qatar Tourism (@NTC_Qatar) December 27, 2022

"Early November, and less than two weeks into the global sporting event, #QatarTourism reports that the country had already welcomed over half a million visitors from around the world. #Qatar #Doha," the authority tweeted.

The World Cup began on 20 November and came to an end on 18 December, as the Argentinian team were crowned the winners.

Despite heavily critical Western reporting of the sporting event being held in Qatar, voters in a BBC Sport poll selected this year’s tournament as the best World Cup of the century.

Qatar World Cup voted 'best of century' in BBC Sport poll

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The results of the poll came despite the BBC choosing not to broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies of the tournament, as well as offering criticisms of Qatar despite many activists calling out a "double standard" in Western reporting.

Qatar received more than one million visitors from the beginning of the year until last August, according to Qatar President of Tourism Akbar Al Baker, who confirmed that the number of visitors would triple by 2030 to 6 million.

Despite the number of visitors, Qatar was also able to focus on the environment, as approximately 80% of waste from this year’s tournament was recycled, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy in Qatar said on Tuesday.