The number of visitors to Qatar tumbled 35% year-on-year in the first half of 2018 due to a large drop in those coming from nieghbouring GCC countries after the diplomatic rift that took place in June 2017, data released by Qatar’s Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) showed.

Visitors reached 944,600 during H1-18, down from 1.46 million in the corresponding period of 2017, the MDPS bulletin revealed.

Foreigners from Asia and Oceania, representing 42%, reached 395,000 visitors, while European travellers made up 29% of the total with 278,000 visitors.

Visitors from the GCC slid 84% to 101,000 by the end of H1-18, from 639,000 in the corresponding six months last year.

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, the UAE, and some Arab nations decided to cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

-Mubasher