Qatar has chalked out a master plan for the development of tourism in the country, which is expected to become a major destination in three to five years, Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) chairman Ahmed Abdullah M al-Nuaimi said.
“The plan includes developing sites across the country to cater to business tourists who would like to combine leisure with their trip,” al-Nuaimi told Gulf Times.
“We are in the process of setting up the basic infrastructure necessary to support tourism and in three to five years we expect to see tangible results.”
The QTA chairman said Qatar was relatively a late entrant to the tourism sector and “by the time we started out, some other countries in the region had already established themselves as tourist destinations.”
He said Qatar had a long way to go and the authorities were determined to exert all efforts needed to make the country an outstanding destination for people who want to combine their business trip with leisure tourism.
Answering a question, al-Nuaimi said Qatar was not looking for leisure tourists as “mass tourism is not our focus”.
“Qatar Tourism Authority wants to develop tourist spots across the country and as Qatar is a peninsula, waterfront development has got enormous scope. We have world class marinas, some ready and more being built,” the tourism chief said.
