Qatari Muslim Tourists Choose Thailand As The Destination

Qatar – Qatari Muslim tourists rushed towards Thailand during Eid ul-Fitr holidays this year, Thailand is expecting a repeat performance through the forthcoming Eid ul-Adha.

The Thai embassy told that it processed more than 100 visa applications per day before the Eid ul-Fitr festival, which saw a few thousand Qatari nationals travel to the Southeast Asian nation. With the country’s political crisis now well behind it, Thai officials expect a similar performance during Eid ul-Adha, as outbound tourism from Qatar resumes growth.

In 2013, about 39,000 Muslim tourists from Qatar visited Thailand, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) sees huge potential in the Qatari market which grew 36% last year.

In order to promote travel to the country, the Thai Embassy in Doha will hold a number of cultural events in Doha in the coming months. These include a culinary festival at the end of this month and Loy Kratong Festival in October.

Numbers will get a further boost from new air passenger services between Doha and Thailand.

Qatar Airways is to launch direct services to Thailand’s popular island destination, Phuket, on 26th October, 2014. The new service will be operated by a two-class Airbus A330, with capacity for 260 passengers. The new direct services will replace Qatar’s earlier services to Phuket which linked via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Airline is also seeing increased demand on routes from Doha to Thailand, and is also upping frequencies to Bangkok from three to four flights per day, as of 16 December.