Europe’s largest hotel group Accor will now manage FIFA World Cup 2022 apartments and villas for fans visiting Qatar next year, the Supreme Committee has announced.

The French multinational hospitality company owns, manages and franchises hotels, resorts and vacation properties.

Its dominance on the market makes it the the sixth largest worldwide, and the perfect fit to manage accommodation for the upcoming global tournament in the Gulf state.

With the latest deal, the European company will have the full control to run operations and services across Qatar’s tournament-related real state through to the end of 2022, the committee said in a statement.

As part of the deal, over 60,000 rooms in apartments and villas across the country will be managed by staff assigned by Accor.

“I know that managing above 60,000 flats and hiring 10,000 people is not easy to do and it was never done in the world before. So I measure the challenge, but I’m so proud to be part of it,” he added.“It’s means an enormous pride and enormous excitement to be part of such a huge global tournament. It will also be an enormous challenge, so it will not be easy. But it will be fun to be part of the adventure,” Chairman and CEO of Accor  Sébastien Bazin told Doha News on Thursday.

Such an initiative aims to make the country’s real estate “a sustainable hotel market that does not leave Qatar with excess permanent hotel rooms post-2022,” said Hassan al Thawadi, head of the committee, according to Reuters.

Qatar’s historic hosting of the FIFA World Cup next year is hoped to bring the Gulf state over 1.2 million visitors.

Source : Doha News