Qatar Tourism Authority to Launch First Domestic Tourism Survey

Doha, May 27 (QNA) - Qatar University's Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) will begin reaching out to residents this weekend to survey tourism-related spending patterns and insights on Qatar's domestic tourism industry. The survey will be conducted by telephone targeting a statistically drawn sample of the resident population from SESRI's state-of-the-art calling center. This Domestic Tourism Survey will be the first of four as part of a partnership between Qatar Tourism Authority and SESRI, with the aim of understanding and analyzing sector-specific spending activities among Qatar's residents. Data collection for this first survey will take place between May 28 and June 17. According to Hassan Al-Ibrahim, QTA's Chief Tourism Development Officer, survey results will feed into the State of Qatar's Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), a system approved by the UN Statistical Commission for establishing the economic impact of tourism on a country's economy. TSA development in Qatar is overseen by a cross-institutional committee, chaired by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics, and includes representation from QTA, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Finance. "The insights we receive from respondents will help to define the impact of domestic tourism on the overall tourism economy," he said. "Such studies are a powerful tool which allow us to better monitor, plan, regulate, and develop a sustainable tourism sector in Qatar. We greatly appreciate the collaboration of residents and call on them to respond freely and candidly." The survey will also support QTA 's partners in the private sector in their efforts to understand resident activity patterns and levels of customer satisfaction and to develop their products and services accordingly. A draft TSA estimated domestic tourism spending in 2013 to be QAR 9.3 billion, an amount that fed directly into Qatar's non-hydrocarbon economy. Spending came from tourism-related activity inside Qatar as well as travel outside of Qatar on Qatar Airways. The planned survey will help to refine these estimates and provide more detail by industry sub-sector, as well as fill in current data gaps, such as the proportion of hotel revenue that can be attributed to domestic spending. The information obtained from the study will be confidential and the results from the analysis of these data will be presented as summary statistics so that no individual answers can be identified. (QNA)