All the world's eyes turn toward the world's biggest tournament today, the showpiece FIFA 2022. For the first time in FIFA world cup history, it will be held in the middle east and the Arab world, in the Qatari capital, Doha, from November 21 to December 18.
A very active movement has been seen in Dubai Market recently, due to FIFA 2022 world cup, according to the travel specialists report. FIFA's website stated that the ticket sales have reached 2.45 million, 1.5 million the expected number of footfalls in Qatar during the FIFA World Cup 2022.
Ahmad Ibrahim, CEO of Avalon Properties says: "Investors are more demanding properties in Dubai recently, considering Dubai the GCC favourable tourism hub and the city of dreams. The sector performance in Dubai started to further boost after a clear increase in people's interests in property investing during FIFA22, which will kick off soon from the Qatari capital, Doha."
Ibrahim added, "Despite recent global economic challenges, Dubai real estate market showed an extraordinary performance exceeding Dh 184 billion total sales by end of Q3 2022."
According to the chart figures, August had the best performance with total sales of over Dh 24 billion. "The market is set to be in the spotlight again in Q4 with the positive expectation to hit Dh 260+ billion." Ibrahim estimates.
The Bloomberg report explained that Dubai is well prepared to take advantage of this, as it has built a new hotel on Palm Jumeirah and dedicated it to visitors of the World Cup, who intend to stay in Dubai and from there to Doha to watch the championship matches and then return to Palm Jumeirah to stay overnight.
Qatar Airways officially announced last May that: "The Qatari flag carrier has partnered with flydubai to connect match ticket holders to Doha via matchday shuttle flights during the tournament period." According to Qatar Airways officials, flydubai will operate up to 60 daily flights from Dubai, the region's tourism centre, carrying up to 2,500 passengers.
The CEO says: "Partnering with other Gulf carriers to provide matchday shuttle flights between Doha and major cities in the region is a significant move that promises to alleviate the country's lodging shortage during the FIFA World Cup 2022."
Ibrahim admits: "Dubai is a tourist destination that is already overwhelmingly popular globally, it seems that the most positioned to benefit from this tournament will be the emirate."
Doha is expected to receive more than 90 flights a day during the tournament, of which about 60 are departing from the UAE.
According to the latest data from Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), Dubai attracted 7.12 million international visitors between January and June of 2022, recording more than 183 per cent growth in visitors compared to the 2.52 million tourists who visited Dubai during the same period in 2021. This positive trend in the first half of 2022 places the city firmly on track to achieve its tourism goals for 2022 and beyond and further reinforces its position as an international destination of choice.
Dubai International Airport (DXB), the busiest in terms of passenger traffic has handled more than 27.9 million passengers in the first half of this year, indicating a nearly 162 per cent year-on-year growth and merely 1.2 million less than the airport’s total annual traffic last year.
Ithar Al-Zou'bi is a senior marketing analyst at Avalon Properties.