Qatar registered a healthy growth of visitors in March 2023 as the country recorded a total of 3,516,939 air passengers, a rise of 25 percent, according to the Air Transport Statistics released by Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA).

According to a tweet by the QCAA recently, the country witnessed a total of 3,516,939 air passengers in March this year, indicating an increase of 25 percent, compared to 2,813,043 recorded during the same period in 2022.

It further noted that the aircraft movement recorded 12.9 percent year-on-year rise in March 2023, totalling 19,561 flights, compared to 17,320 in same time period last year.

Meanwhile, cargo and mail showed a 5.2 percent decline of 206,276 tonnes, compared to 217,676 tonnes recorded in March 2022. The number of passengers registered in the months of February and March were the highest ever recorded figures for these two months since the start of operations at both Hamad and Doha International Airports.

The month of February 2023 indicated an increase in aircraft movement by 15.6 percent compared to the same month last year. The number of passengers also increased by 49.4 percent compared to February 2022. Meanwhile, air freight and mail showed a decline of 5.2 percent compared to the same month of 2022.

The total number of inbound visitors reached about 3,89,000, recording a monthly increase of 14.3 percent (compared to January 2023) and it recorded an annual increase of 406.3 percent (compared to February 2022). The highest number of visitors was from the GCC at 38 percent.

As for visitors by type of port, the visitors via air make up the highest percentage with 44 percent of the total number of visitors.

FIFA World Cup 2022 attracted over 1.4 million visitors which increased the demands in the tourism and hospitality sector as Qatar attracted visitors from across the region.

Qatar Tourism has announced a package of programmes for 2023 as part of its strategy aimed at strengthening Qatar’s position as a leading global tourist destination, attracting 6 million visitors annually by 2030, and raising the tourism sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) to 12 percent by the decade end.

Visitor arrivals measure non-residents travelling to Qatar on a short-term basis for all purposes.

It includes arrivals at borders under different 15 visa classes, including all businesses and leisure visa types excluding work visas.

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