After the overwhelming 4-1 victory of the Uruguayan team over Venezuela, more and more fans are excited about qualifying for the World Cup and going to support the sky-blue team. Now many fans got ahead of the official result and, confident in the team led by Diego Alonso, took out the calculator… to find the least expensive way to Qatar, assuming that the team will achieve its objective in the two remaining matches (Peru and Chile) to complete the Qualifiers.
packages
On the Despegar website, there are tickets for just over US$3,000 round trip for the dates of the World Cup. However, the complicated thing for a solo buyer will be obtaining tickets and reserving accommodation independently: according to operators consulted by The Observer, Doha (the capital of Qatar and venue for the competition) will have the capacity to host just over 100,000 people in a few months, when the influx of people for the World Cup is expected to be more than 1 million.
Travel agencies have begun to think about the possibilities that the biggest soccer event on the planet brings. For a remote and little-known country like Qatar, the programs put together by the agencies give the fans greater guarantees. Already for the previous tournament, tour operators thought that “Russia is not like Brazil, that you could throw yourself to see what would happen.” Well, Qatar is an even more remote destination for international connections from Uruguay.
Sergio Bañales, director of Mac Travel, stated in dialogue with The Observer that —including airfare, 4-star hotel accommodation, and tickets (the most affordable) for the entire group stage— the price of the package does not fall below US$ 13 thousand in its most economical version, with a stay of 13 days.
According to the director of Mac Travel, the flights may have between one and three stops. In addition, to remedy the complications due to scarce accommodation, Bañales does not rule out taking advantage of the hotel capacity of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (an hour’s flight from Doha, the Qatari capital). “It’s the same as if you wanted to hold a World Cup in Uruguay; you can’t, you have to support yourself in another country,” he explained. The plan amount is refundable if the team does not qualify.
The sky blue recomposed its image against Venezuela with a 4-1 win.
For his part, Fernando Riva, manager of Hiperviajes, commented to The Observer that the most complex thing to coordinate “is the part of flights” due to the scarce connectivity between the country and the host State. He also stated that inquiries to travel began to be noticed after the team’s victory against Paraguay and that there are those who expressed concern “by noticing that the dates of the competition coincide with the closing of the classes for teenagers and children.
Unlike Bañales, Riva preferred not to release price figures for the time being. “What there is today is very little and at very expensive prices, so we prefer not to launch something on the market that is not attractive and in low quantity“, argument.
Days ago, Marina Cantera, president of the Chamber of Tourism, told The Observer that travel agencies are in a “really complicated” situation. To the drag of poor yields since the start of the pandemic, they must have added the frustration of their tourist harvest —promising until a few months ago— due to the omicron outbreaks in the country. With this scenario, the classification of the light blue could ease your red numbers and improve your prospects of getting back on your feet.
Tickets
To get tickets to the matches independently, it is necessary to enter the ticket section on the official FIFA site, click on international access (as opposed to Qatari residents) and submit a request according to the steps indicated on that site. With all requests, FIFA will raffle those with the right to pay the ticketsbecause the requests will presumably be more numerous than the number of tickets available.
According to the official FIFA website, there are four ticket categories for the World Cup:
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Category 1 is the most expensive and is located in the preferred areas of the stadium.
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Categories 2 and 3 are located in a separate area of the stadium from category 1.
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Category 4 is an area of the stadium separate from the areas comprising categories 1, 2 and 3. This category is exclusively reserved for residents of Qatar.
All prices to attend matches are in Qatari Rials (QAR). Watching a group stage match costs QAR 250, QAR 600 and QAR 800, for categories 3, 2 and 1 respectively —which is equivalent to $3,015, $7,236 and $9,648 each at the current price (QAR1 ≈ $12.06)—.
Instead, for packages that include all three group stage matches (called “team pass” or TST for its acronym in English), the values correspond to $9,950, $23,878 and $31,838 depending on the category. Although the package is more expensive than buying three separate tickets, it can be helpful in avoiding the uncertainty of drawing for three different tickets. In addition, there are additional promotions to watch four matches (groups and round of 16) and seven matches (all phases) at higher prices.
Internet searches skyrocket
Google searches for the next World Cup cropped up every week that Uruguay played for the Qualifiers in the last 12 months. But web queries for tickets only began to be seen last week, when the illusion of qualifying became more tangible due to the positive results obtained against Paraguay and Venezuela.
