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Qatar Tourism reported that visitor numbers rose 6.3 percent in August to 303,000 from 285,000 the previous month. The authority’s figures show GCC nationals accounted for 41 percent of the cumulative total with 958,000 visitors during the January-to-August period. Asia and Oceania ranked second with 489,000 arrivals for a 20.9 percent share while Europe placed third at 486,000 visitors or 20.8 percent.
The Americas contributed 169,000 visitors representing 7.2 percent of the total according to the Qatar Tourism breakdown. Other Arab countries supplied 162,000 visitors for a 6.9 percent share and other African nations rounded out the list with 73,000 arrivals equaling 3.1 percent. The authority’s data confirmed the components added up to the overall eight-month total of 2.338 million.
Qatar Tourism’s annual performance report for 2025 placed full-year international visitors at 5.1 million, a 3.7 percent increase from the prior year. The 2025 figures showed 10.8 million room nights sold across the hospitality sector, an 8.6 percent rise, with average occupancy reaching 71 percent for the full calendar year. GCC visitors represented 35 percent of the 2025 arrivals according to that report.
International arrivals dropped to 618,000 in the second quarter of 2026, a decline of 44.7 percent from the same quarter in 2025, Qatar Tourism data indicated. A Cushman and Wakefield assessment found hotel supply had grown 2.2 percent year on year to 42,131 keys by the end of June 2026. The real estate consultancy reported average occupancy stood at 52 percent for the second quarter.
The GCC tourism sector contributed $254.7 billion to the regional economy in 2025, reflecting 7.3 percent annual growth since 2019, according to GCC secretary general Jassem Mohammed Al-Budaiwi. Al-Budaiwi made the remarks at a statistics workshop in Oman where he noted the tourism strategy had achieved 73.8 percent progress toward its objectives. Qatar received designation as the GCC Tourism Capital for 2026 under that framework.
Qatar Tourism has continued to activate marketing campaigns and partnerships to support the sector’s performance. The authority’s dashboards track arrivals by port of entry with air arrivals forming the majority in recent full-year data. Additional quarterly reports are scheduled to provide further detail on occupancy and revenue indicators.
