| Dancers perform at the opening ceremony before the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar Group A football match between Qatar and Ecuador on the 20th (local time). 22.11.20 © AFP=News1 © News1 Journalist Kim Ye-seul |
Reuters reported on the 8th (local time) that the number of foreign tourists visiting Qatar after the opening of the 2022 World Cup was lower than organizers expected.
According to internal documents of the Qatar World Cup Organizing Committee (SC) obtained by Reuters, some 760,000 foreigners visited Qatar in the 15 days since the opening of the World Cup. This falls short of the expectations of the Qatari authorities, who had set a goal of attracting 1.2 million people in one month for the World Cup. Reuters predicted that the increase in visitor numbers over the full period would be minimal as there are only eight matches left.
According to SC documents, the influx of visitors peaked from the 24th to the 28th of last month, when 32 teams played four games a day. In the 17 days since the opening, a total of 765,859 visitors have entered Qatar, of which more than half have already left.
Reuters said: “This World Cup, which was held for the first time in the Arab world, is considered to be one of the most expensive tournaments, from stadium tickets to accommodation costs.” He analysed: “There was an unexpected oversupply due to fewer visitors than initially expected, but thanks to this, traffic congestion and overcrowding were avoided in a country with a small population.”
Qatar, which has a population of just 3 million, temporarily increased its population by 25% due to the influx of visitors during the World Cup. However, even in the existing national population, the number of foreigners is large enough that only 10% are Qataris.
An official from the Qatari authorities told Reuters that “the match is still a week away. More fans from all over the world will come to Korea to watch the final.” Indeed, on the 6th, when the match between Morocco and Spain in the round of 16 was played, a large number of Moroccan fans arrived on a special flight. This is the background that the authorities expect from the ‘race to the entrance’ to guess the ferocious game at the end of the World Cup.
SC calculated that a total of 309 tickets were sold, including the final 18 game, and the cumulative attendance for the 52 games played reached 2.65 million. Earlier, the International Football Federation (FIFA) announced that the number of spectators for the 2018 World Cup in Russia during the same period was exceeded.
