Qatar is still closed for Russian tourists

Russian tourists will not be able to visit Qatar in the near future, despite the fact that Russians are allowed to fly to the country's capital Doha and Qataris are allowed to come to Russia, as the tourism office of this Arab country informed.

At the moment, Qatar is closed to guests from any country, including Russia, until at least February 15th. Now entry is allowed only to local residents and certain types of workers with mandatory quarantine, the duration and conditions of which depends on the country from which the person arrives.

Earlier, Rosaviatsia accorded the resumption of international flights on a reciprocal basis with this Middle Eastern state with frequency of three times a week from January 27. But the airlines have not yet announced the dates of the start of regular flights.

Some hopes that the situation may change in the foreseeable future are given by the words of the Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Representative of the Russian President for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov, who believes that "this is a very important area" from a tourist point of view. He also stressed that Doha airport is convenient as a transit point for flights to Asia and Africa.

Dmitry Arutyunov, General Director of Art-Tour, also counts on positive news from Qatar in the near future. He believes that the Arab country will have very great tourism prospects after the lifting of covid restrictions. “Demand has been growing steadily over the past years, and we forecast a significant increase of tourist traffic in 2022, when the FIFA World Cup will take place there,” he added.