Doha, December 27 (QNA) - Hosted in Qatar, the Middle East's first FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Qatar Tourism (QT) reports that the country had already welcomed over 600,000 visitors from around the world in November, which coincides the last 10 days of the tournament kicking off.

The visitors flocked across the globe to cheer for their favorite teams and to visit the most cultural landscapes across the country.

In a statement today, QT pointed out that the visitors from Saudi Arabia led the latest tourism figures (16 percent of total international arrivals), followed by India (8 percent), USA (7 percent), UK (6 percent) and Mexico (5 percent). Argentina, Egypt, Iran, France and Kuwait also make up the top 10 source countries for all inbound international visitors since the World Cup kicking off.

As the first-ever Middle Eastern nation to host the FIFA World Cup , Qatar's historic achievement for the region has been followed by further wins and records relating to the tournament.

Up to the opening day on November 20, a FIFA spokesperson revealed that 2.95 million tickets had been sold, comfortably exceeding Russia (2018) where just over 2.4 million tickets were sold. Later, the Argentina-Mexico match at Lusail Stadium saw the highest attendance in record at a FIFA World Cup match since 1994, with 88,966 attendees. Outside the stadiums, the mega-tournament has drawn in record-breaking numbers in TV viewership, across multiple markets.

(QNA)