The Peninsula: The Qatar Tourism Authority’s (QTA) strategic plan is to have 50,000 hotel rooms in the country by 2016, said Ahmed Abdullah Al Nuaimi, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of QTA.

“We have conducted studies and an extensive report has been prepared on Qatar's infrastructure needs, future tourism activities and QTA’s role in backing Doha's bid for the 2016 Olympics. Our dream will come true. We have proved that in respect of the Asian Games,” Al Nuaimi said.

Qatar’s tourism sector has been looking up over the past few years, contributing to the productivity of most of the establishments and companies working in the filed.

“That's why we decided to start from the scratch and have new strategies in place. We are working on two new laws – one for the tourism sector, and the other for exhibitions," he said.

The legislations would regulate several activities, including setting up of tourism ships, tourism companies, heritage shops, transportation facilities and hotels of different classifications.

The QTA is also giving priority to classifying hotels. In the past, the classification was done based on loose standards. “Because of this we stopped the classification system until the new law, which would protect the owners and investors, is out. Our goal is to improve the quality and to organise the hotel industry and raise its competitiveness. Every hotel has to abide by the law once it is enforced,” Al Nuaimi said.

The QTA is working to establish an advanced information centre, which in coordination with the government and the hospitality industry, would collect information and statistics about companies active in the tourism sector, including restaurants and tour and travel operators.

The QTA is providing support to some travel agencies which participate in exhibitions overseas. “We ask these agencies to produce reports of their activities every six months to assess their contribution to promoting Qatar as a tourism destination. We would like to focus on quality and not numbers of tourists, especially from the ‘expending markets’ of Europe, East Asia and Japan. We also want to take advantage by organizing conferences and exhibitions,” Al Nuaimi said.

There is an urgent need of qualified people with  knowledge of Qatar's heritage. “We will introduce rules to organise their work. The QTA is also planning to open an office at the Doha International Airport to provide assistance to tourists. But we are waiting until the number of tourists exceeds 300 to 400 per day,” Al Nuaimi said.