Articles tagged “world cup”

As football fans from around the world make a beeline to catch their favorite stars in action, Doha becomes the top trending destination. However, being the most geographically-compact World Cup host comes with its own set of challenges.

As it prepares to host Middle East's first-ever FIFA World Cup, Qatar expects the event to offer unique marketing potential to place the destination firmly on the tourism map. But for a country whose pre-Covid arrivals stood at 2.1 million in 2019, a goal of 1.5 million tourists for the two months of the tournament sounds overly ambitious.

Although Qatari tourism officials are projecting a welcoming image for their country, it will take more than one more tournament to prove it. The answer would come with the treatment of LGBTQ visitors later on when Qatar is out of the spotlight.

Good morning from Skift. It's Thursday, February 24, in New York City. Here's what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Travel agencies are busy deploying plans to help Latin American fans pay for flights and lodging for the FIFA World Cup in light of steep exchange rates. Those rabid fútbol fans are topping the global demand lists for tickets.

Who can blame travelers for wanting to sit this World Cup out given all the reasons (some valid) they get from news reports every day? FIFA could also have done more to assure travelers from countries like the U.S. and UK that Russia will have the welcome mat rolled out, at least while the matches are being played.

Brazil has a rare opportunity to learn from two big events separated only by two years, as well as a downturn in the economy. It will provide lessons in tourism development for years to come.

Qatar will continue to push the positive impacts of the games as it builds towards both the event and general tourism growth with hopes that time will erase memory of any transgressions.

The World Cup is a perfect example of how sports fans are less likely to wait to book travel to games for fear flights, hotels and game tickets will sell out. They're likely more impulsive with making travel decisions and will often make them on the go, where mobile devices are at the ready.

It's the content and context of the event that led to such a homogenous group of travelers, which while good for Brazil, raises questions about how we can bring the benefits of travel to a more diverse groups of people.