The Middle East

Tourism has been a centrepiece of Qatar’s economic diversification plans for the past few years. The sector has come far, but it still accounted for no more than 1% the country’s GDP in 2013, in part because of its small size compared to larger sectors like energy and real estate. Still, the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), the state agency...

Qatar’s development strategy centres on using income from its vast energy resources to establish Doha as a regional, and increasingly global, centre for business and commercial activity. Constructing an urban environment that places the city alongside leading capitals is thus a priority for the government. Doha’s urban landscape has developed...

Over the past two decades, the Gulf region has become home to a growing number of airlines as national carriers have emerged in Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Three of these – Qatar Airways (QA), Emirates and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad – have grown far beyond the region, becoming some of the industry’s largest players. The impact of their...

The Ras Laffan Industrial City and port were constructed through a partnership between Qatar’s state-owned gas firms and international energy companies to put in place the current liquefied natural gas (LNG) compression and export infrastructure. Today, Qatar has the world’s largest LNG tanker fleet and the largest LNG processing facility,...

In the past five years Doha has announced plans for a new railway system, a new port, nine stadia, and new highways and roads. These plans, in conjunction with tourism- and retail-related projects, are set to stretch Doha’s transport capacity to its limits. In the period surrounding the 2006 Asian Games, Qatar saw a flurry of construction...