Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tan, Ho Chi Minh City, has been busy searching for information on World Cup tours in recent days but has not found any. "I booked the tour late because I had just arranged my work and was subjective, thinking that like previous World Cups, just two months before the opening day, Vietnamese fans could find a tour, but unexpectedly, this year in Qatar is different," Mr. Tan lamented.
The 80,000-seat Lusail Stadium on the outskirts of Doha will host this year's World Cup football matches.
Mr. Tan is one of many customers who asked for a tour from Saigontourist Travel Company but there was none. This company previously sold the program "Straight to Doha to watch the World Cup group stage" for 199 million VND/person. The tour lasted 5 days, departing from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on November 25, in which customers watched two matches: France - Denmark on November 26 and Germany - Spain on November 27. The tour was opened for sale in July with limited seats. Therefore, up to now, Saigontourist has closed the tour, there are no more seats available.
Similarly, travel companies in Vietnam said there were no more tickets to Doha to watch the World Cup. Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, Marketing Director of TST Tourist, said that the company only deployed a single group of 17 guests to Qatar to watch football in November and did not open for individual sales. "The tour was closed 3 months ago. We completed all services a long time ago to have seats, through tour partners in Qatar. Our group of guests have tickets to watch the semi-finals and finals and the tour price is 200 million VND/person, from December 13 to 20, including sightseeing and stadium tickets," Mr. Man said.
Many Vietnamese tourists are looking for ways to travel to Qatar on their own, but this option is not simple. Qatar is a small Gulf country, but it is expected to welcome more than 1.2 million fans from all over the world during the days of the biggest football festival on the planet. Therefore, the difficult problem is that this country cannot provide accommodation for everyone. Therefore, it is possible that tens of thousands of fans will have to stay in nearby countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman or Saudi Arabia, where you can go to Qatar to watch football and return the same day by plane.
The Pearl artificial island in Doha
Dubai, the tourism hub of the Middle East and the largest city in the UAE, will benefit the most from the football event. Of the more than 90 flights landing in Doha every day during the World Cup, about 40 will depart from the UAE, according to SCMP.
Meanwhile, Qatar expects to welcome 1.2 million tourists during the World Cup alone, adding $17 billion to its economy. Amid concerns about a lack of accommodation, organizers will have to charter two large cruise ships and set up 1,000 tents in the desert.
Russia, the last host of the World Cup, held the tournament in 11 cities, while Brazil held it in 12. The 2026 World Cup will be held in Mexico, Canada and the United States. Qatar, on the other hand, is only 12 square kilometers in size with a population of only about 3 million people.
