Qatar's World Cup Prep and the Quest for a Lasting Tourism Experience
Photo Credit: A huge building in the form of a torch located in the middle of Doha in Qatar. Officials are hoping all its investment ahead of the World Cup will pay off permanently for a bright tourism future. Getty Images / autau
Skift Take
Qatar has made strides since my last visit a year ago, with more of a cultural pulse, less friction for guests as large-scale hospitality and infrastructure projects come online ahead of the World Cup. Officials are hoping once the players leave the pitch for a final time in December Qatar will have earned its credentials as a lasting tourism fixture in the region.
On Experience
Colin Nagy is a marketing strategist and writes on customer-centric experiences and innovation across the luxury sector, hotels, aviation, and beyond. You can read all of his writing here.I last checked in on Qatar's World Cup progress about a year ago. I found Doha to be a city careening towards a very hard deadline, while also working out supply chain kinks with Covid, and some friction with guest experience getting in and out of the country. As I reported at the time, I could squint and see the bigger picture, and the larger strategic building blocks that were being put into place, amidst the construction dust, new hotels, and infrastructure coming online.
I flew in again a few weeks ago, out of sheer curiosity. My final approach into Hamad International revealed a more sophisticated skyline, particularly in the northern part of Doha, in Lusail. I saw more cultural touch points throughout the city like M7, a center for innovation and entrepreneurship in design, fashion and tech. There were more cafes like Kitsune and Toby's Estate Coffee, scattered around the Mandarin Oriental in the Soho-feeling Msherib development. Per the demands of the tournament, there were also new places where people can assemble to watch the matches outside, with music playing and people congregating outside: something I wouldn't have seen five years ago.
I saw the new stadiums, opulent new shopping centers, and also areas that hinted to me the larger ambitions for Qatar post-World Cup, moving the country from the obligatory stopover to a destination. And that is really the larger question. Can Qatar be a longer-term draw once the final football goals are scored this December, especially in an increasingly complex and competitive tourism marketplace that is evolving in the Middle East?
Qatar is, more so than many other tourism stories today, a fascinating mix of vision, ambition, taste, as well as regulatory and cultural challenges.
