Doha’s history may delve back into the 19th century, but the face of the city that visitors see today only really started to emerge after the discovery of oil and Qatar’s independence in the 20th century. Oil has given the city (home to over 80% of the emirate’s population) and Qatar great wealth and it is rated as the richest Arab nation with a per capita income of over US$40,000 per annum.

Over the last few decades the most ostentatious display of this wealth has come in the form of gleaming new skyscrapers and office blocks, but now the government is starting to look to the long term when the oil reserves dry up. In short, though the city’s tourist officials may deny it, Doha is trying to ‘do a Dubai’ by reinventing itself as a major global tourist destination with hotels, restaurants and purpose-built tourist attractions to match. Billions of dollars are being poured into a new airport, the impressive new ‘The Pearl’ artificial offshore island development, the rapidly expanding state airline Qatar Airways and other tourist-orientated developments.

There is now plenty for tourists as well as business people to enjoy, with a sprinkling of historical attractions in the city as well as out of town dune bashing tours and dhow cruises. It may not yet be on the same scale as Dubai, but Qatar and Doha are thinking big. The successful staging of the Asian Games in 2006 enhanced Doha’s reputation as a can-do city and the hosting of such a large and prestigious event was very much a statement of both ambition and intent.