Editing Economy of Qatar (section)

==Travel and tourism==
[[File:Pearl-Qatar Doha Qatar 11Nov2017 SkySat.jpg|thumb|260px|The Pearl Qatar]]
Under the ambitious five-year development plan of the Qatar Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (QTEA), the government aimed to boost the number of visitors from 964,000 as of 2007 to 1.5m by 2010.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Qatar Tourism |url=http://www.visit-qatar.com/qatar-tourism.html |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=www.visit-qatar.com}}</ref> The funding required to meet this goal was present in sufficient amounts; in 2008 the state allocated some $17bn for tourism development through 2014, most of which was allocated towards hotels, exhibition space and infrastructure. In order to keep up with a rising number of visitors, the government set a goal of increasing hotel capacity 400% by 2012.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsnclinic.com/global-finance-magazine-declares-qatar-richest|title=Global Finance Magazine declares Qatar richest country in the region|access-date=2023-08-18|website=www.wsnclinic.com}}</ref> In addition to financial support, the government has also worked to ease business regulations in a bid to increase private sector activity. A major aspect of expansion plans is the [[Hamad International Airport]], which has the capacity to handle up to 24m passengers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hamad International Airport Terminal Expansion, Doha |url=https://www.airport-technology.com/projects/hamad-international-airport-terminal-expansion-doha/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=Airport Technology |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[Qatar Airways]] is an airline owned by the Qatar government and was founded in 1993. It travels to over a hundred destinations.

Other niche tourism segments receiving special focus include cultural tourism on the back of the high publicity opening of Doha's [[Museum of Islamic Art, Doha|Museum of Islamic Art]], and sports tourism, initially spurred by the [[Asian Games]], to which [[2006 Asian Games|Qatar played host in 2006]]. Qatar hosted the 2022 FIFA World cup,  <ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/sports/soccer/qatar-and-russia-bribery-world-cup-fifa.html | title=U.S. Says FIFA Officials Were Bribed to Award World Cups to Russia and Qatar | work=The New York Times | date=6 April 2020 | last1=Panja | first1=Tariq | last2=Draper | first2=Kevin }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/sports/football/massive-scandal-in-fifa-world-cup-2022-qatar-accused-of-bribing-ecuador-players-7-4-million-dollars-to-lose-opener-101668855308292.html | title=Massive scandal in FIFA World Cup 2022: Qatar accused of bribing Ecuador players 7.4 million dollars to lose opener | date=19 November 2022 }}</ref>