Qatar World Cup: Over 12,000 UAE fans sign up for luxury matchday packages

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Dubai: Over 12,000 football fans in the United Arab Emirates have booked luxury hospitality packages to attend matches to be played at the Doha World Cup venues from Sunday evening November 20. This makes them the highest ever UAE contingent for the FIFA World Cup tournament. It helps, of course, that Doha is only a short flight away.

The “Match Club” experience, worth $950 per person for a group match, is the cheapest package. Match Pavilion tickets are $1,900, while Match Business seats are $3,050. The private suite option offers a dining experience and access to first-class stadium seating, and is priced at $22,450 per suite. From Dubai, peak demand is coming from British, Lebanese and Iranian expats, with an increase in bookings also coming from fans in the UAE, says Alan Holt, Managing Director of Expat Sport, the exclusive commercial agent for the UAE for the official match of the FIFA World Cup 2022. Hospitality program. “Unfortunately the challenge now is availability, but we still have options for most games – (it’s) just extremely limited on the most popular ones.”

Requests for tickets to matches in Qatar have increased by 500% in the last 10 days. “We also have people who already have tickets but are now looking to add family members or secure shuttle flights around the games,” Holt said. “So the focus is now on logistics and planning.”

Ahmed Soliman, Managing Director of Travel Connections Arabia (TCA), said: “Sports travel experiences are nothing new in the luxury travel industry – from golf to horse racing, tennis to football and even the Games. Olympics. Travel concierge services can create packages that provide end-to-end solutions for high net worth individuals that deliver an experience beyond the sport itself.

During the World Cup in Doha, only the most “affordable” high-end packages for a quarter-final match can start from $11,000 for a single day, including air transfers, accommodation in four-star hotel and access to the match for two people. “The prices will only go up from there, and you could be looking at spending upwards of $20,000 for semi-finals and finals, all for 90 minutes of football (excluding overtime),” Soliman said. . Since most football fans prefer to take shuttle flights to spend the day rather than stay the full duration in Doha, the demand for luxury football-related experiences in Dubai has skyrocketed in the run-up to matches.

“The top countries where bookings come from are South America, Mexico, the UK, China and India,” Holt said. “We have also just released a ‘Saudi Fans’ package to stay in Dubai for four days over the UAE National Day weekend, plus a flight to see the game Saudi Arabia vs Mexico in the daytime shuttle . We published it at the end of last week and have already received several inquiries.

Most popular with UAE fans

The England v Iran match proves to be hugely popular with the UAE fans, as well as all the legends of the game.

The most popular package outside of the group matches has been the quarter-finals, which take place over a long weekend. “Fly over Friday December 9, watch two games over two days – something that has not been possible at other World Cups due to geographical distance,” said Alan Holt of Expat Sport.

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