Qatar Welcomes 3.5M Visitors for First Nine Months of 2025
Mid-Year Momentum: How Qatar’s Visitor Numbers are Rising as the Nation Gears Up for a Big 2025-26 Event Season
- Publish date: since 3 hours Reading time: two min read
From January to September 2025, the State of Qatar recorded a total of 3.5 million visitor arrivals, marking a 2.2 % increase compared with the same period in 2024.
This upward trend reflects the country’s growing appeal as a regional and international tourism destination, and underscores the efforts of Qatar Tourism to enhance accommodation capacity, infrastructure and event programming.
The composition of visitor source markets underscores Qatar’s regional strength: the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries contributed 36 % of total arrivals, with Europe accounting for 25 %, and Asia and Oceania making up 22 %.
The third quarter saw especially strong growth from visitors from China (up 37 %) and Australia (up 31 %), reinforcing the value of partnerships and targeted promotion in major global markets.
As for arrival modes, the data revealed that 60 % of visitors arrived by air, 33 % by land and 7 % by sea — signalling that Qatar’s multi-modal access routes remain a strategic strength for tourism flows.
In terms of accommodation infrastructure, hotel and hotel-apartment room stock stood at 41,733 rooms, and the average occupancy rate for Q1-Q3 was 68 %, up by 2.4 percentage points year-on-year. Room-nights sold reached 7.7 million, representing an 8 % growth in demand.
Looking ahead, Qatar is primed for a busy final quarter of 2025 and into 2026. The nation’s national events calendar includes major international sporting tournaments, cultural festivals and entertainment programmes — such as the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix, the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2025 and the FIFA U‑17 World Cup Qatar 2025, supported by agreements across tourism, transport and hospitality stakeholders.
These initiatives tie directly into the country’s Third National Development Strategy (2024-2030), in which tourism is a key pillar supporting economic diversification and expanded access to culture, leisure and sporting experiences for residents and visitors alike.
This performance signals confidence in Qatar’s tourism ecosystem – not only in attracting more visitors, but in offering quality accommodation and event-led experiences with an eye on longer-term growth. The fact that multiple entry modes are leveraged and that accommodation demand is rising indicates that the sector is well-positioned for the region’s recovery in global travel. With major global-scale events lined up, Qatar stands to convert its momentum from the first nine months into a truly standout year in the tourism landscape.