Qatar Tourism Authority released figures today showing the tourism industry in Qatar continues its upward trajectory. The data was released in QTA ‘s third quarter (July – September) 2013 report, comparing performance to the same quarter of 2012. All key indicators of the tourism sector demonstrated improvement and growth from the previous year comparable period. The average hotel occupancy rate rose from 50% to 57% despite the industry adding over 600 rooms, growing inventory by 4.73%. These jumps meant that Total Revenue amongst 4 & 5-Star Hotels increased by QR 85.3 million, reaching a total of QR 703.1 million for the quarter. This 13.81% increase over previous year, despite being the lower summer season, sees strong demand, with an equivalent 19% increase in Rooms Revenue. 4 and 5-Star hotels make up 11,717 of Qatar’s 13,551 rooms, with calls for more economy and budget hotels from consumers. Regional visitors increased by 20%, with the greatest increases from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and UAE and Oman remaining static. Tourists coming from other continents rose by 13.36%, with arrivals from Asia showed the biggest increases at 18.27%, the report said. QTA Statistics now incorporates wider field of data, which it is hoped provides greater guidance to the industry. The data is based on hotel submissions to QTA , and assists in assessing trends and underlying opportunities. Amongst the highlights: It noted that despite the increase in room inventory the average room rate per available room per day for both 4 and 5 Star hotels increased by 8.82% from previous year, rising from QR 293 to QR 319. Contrary to industry opinion that predicted falls in revenues due to rapid room inventory increases, Average Total Revenue per available room per day grew by 4.41% over Q3 2012, it added . The report said that this indicates the sector is still facing robust demand and the 4th Quarter in 2013 is likely to show strong growth.