Occupancy rates for all hotels in Qatar reached 63 percent in the first six months of 2011, up two percent on the same period in 2010, Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) said on Monday. Its new report said that the increase showed the continued growth of the hotel sector despite the opening of a large number of new hotels since the beginning of the year. QTA also reported that the number of tourists to the Gulf state saw a 12.3 percent increase during the same period.It said the growth in the hospitality and tourism sectors was due to the government increasing the number of tourist activities as well as sporting and cultural events held in the country.It also lauded the efforts of Qatar Airways and its rapidly increasing network of global destinations for bringing more people to Qatar.The report also highlighted a significant increase of tourists from GCC countries visiting Qatar, which was up 39.1 percent compared with the same period last year.QTA chairman Ahmed Al Nuaimi said that despite the increase in the number of hotel facilities, the surge in occupancy rates was spurred by the \"greater number of tourists, the steady strong performance of the national economy, the government focus on developing cultural and sport tourism, the continuous expansion of Qatar Airways destinations and fleet\".Spurred by the Asian Football Cup and other sport events held in Doha, hotel occupancy rates in January 2011 were 74 percent, 24 percent higher than in 2010.This strong performance continued through the month of February that saw a significant increase in occupancy rates from 60 percent in 2010 to 66 percent in 2011. During the months of March, April, and May a slight decrease in occupancy rates was recorded, the report added.Al Nuaimi said Saudi Arabia recorded the largest increase in visitors from 148,168 in 2010 to 238,361 visitors. From / Arabian Business News