The city's airlines, bars, restaurants, shopping malls and other attractions now hope to benefit from the inbound travel The Fifa World...
The city's airlines, bars, restaurants, shopping malls and other attractions now hope to benefit from the inbound travel
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The Fifa World Cup may be bringing as many as 1.2 million fans to Qatar, but the nearby emirate of Dubai is ready to welcome fans as the major sports tournament takes place just a short flight away.
Some soccer fan clubs have already said they'll be commuting to Qatar during the cup on 45-minute flights from Dubai, the skyscraper-studded, beachfront city-state in the United Arab Emirates. Other fans plan to sleep on cruise ships or camp out in the desert amid a feverish rush for rooms in Doha.
“If you can’t stay in Qatar, Dubai is the place you’d most like to go as a foreign tourist,” said James Swanston, a Middle East and North Africa expert at Capital Economics. “It’s somewhere safe, somewhere more liberal in terms of Western norms. It’s the most attractive destination.
In the lead-up to the tournament, concerns about hotel room space and high prices for the rooms available have trailed Qatar, which lacks hotel capacity for all teams, workers, volunteers and fans at the World Cup. So Doha has created camping and cabin sites, hiring cruise ships, and encouraging fans to stay in neighbouring countries and fly in for games.
Qatar has estimated it will have 45,000 hotel rooms for the tournament.
Surrounding nations, like Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, also suggest they could see a spike in visitors — even though Bahrain is the only among them that allows alcohol. Even Iran, months ago, suggested developing plans for World Cup tourists to stay on its Kish Island. Apparently, nothing came of the idea and now the Islamic Republic is gripped by nationwide protests
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