According to travel data analysis company ForwardKeys, based on issued flight tickets including day trips, FIFA World Cup travel flight bookings to Qatar between November 14 and December 24 have surged massively.
The database management company found that current flight bookings to Qatar from 31 countries competing in the World Cup, including the UAE, Spain, Japan, France and the US, averaged ten times the volume of pre-pandemic levels, compared with the same period in 2019.
The strongest-performing market during the World Cup period is from the UAE, where bookings are 103 times ahead when compared with 2016. Bookings from Spain have gone up 53 times and Japan’s 46 times compared with the same period in 2019.
The whole of the Gulf is set to benefit, as flight bookings to countries in the region during the competition are currently 16% ahead compared with 2019, and for the initial stages of the tournament, 61% ahead.
“Normally, just 3% of travel to Doha is destined to stay in the country; and 97% comprises onward connections. However, during the World Cup almost 27% has Qatar as the ultimate destination,” said Olivier Ponti, VP Insights of ForwardKeys.
