But having spent quite a bit of time in admiring the huge tower blocks that dominate the sky-line in the area where I am staying, it strikes me that there must be a huge amount of living and office space to fill. The West Bay Area is only one of a number of areas for business although I guess it must be one of the biggest but although Qatar has very much been on the global stage may over the last few years - not least because of last year’s football World Cup, nevertheless it is not as big a business hub as say Dubai or the first growing Riyadh.
I first visited Doha in around 1993 and it was a very different place with a couple of major hotels (including the Sheraton which still remains).When I came for the England - v - Wales game last November, I was struck by how quiet it seemed to be notwithstanding all the football fans. Despite some of the traffic around the hotel when I walk to the Pullman in the morning, it feels very quiet indeed which rather begs the question, who is occupying all this living and working space?
It might be that Qatar is planning on growing its business community. However, as a regional hub I suspect that it will struggle to compete with Dubai and will also face very stiff competition from Riyadh now that the KSA Government require any businesses that wish to work on Saudi to have their regional headquarters in the Kingdom.
Still I have enjoyed my visit and one of the advantages of the relative sedateness of its business sector is that one can stay in 5 star hotels for a very reasonable price (QR500 for a 5X hotel like the InterContintal or Grand Hyatt including breakfast which is c. GBP120 at current rates.
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