QATAR EYES MALAYSIA FOR TOURISM TRAFFIC

By Manik Mehta

SINGAPORE, Oct 21 (Bernama) -- Planners in the Middle East have identified
Malaysia and several Asean countries as good sources of tourism traffic to
offset any possible decline from conventional markets in the West.

Many Arab countries, currently participating in the three-day "ITB Asia"
international travel fair here, make no secret of the fact that Malaysia and
Singapore, in particular, were inherent with good business potential.

Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) chairman, Ahmed Abdullah M. Al-Nuaimi, said Qatar
has made massive investments in building up infrastructure, including museums,
sports city and vacation resorts.

"We offer culture for Malaysians .. we have built the Museum of Islamic Arts
tracing a 1,400-year-old history," he told Bernama at the Qatar Pavilion at the
fair.

He also highlighted the common religious bonds of Islam existing between his
Qatar and Malaysia.

"Nobody even knew that there could be art in Islam," he said.

A QTA delegation held a roadshow at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on
Oct 18 before arriving here.

The KL event attracted 69 representatives from companies in the travel and
tourism trade.

Al Nuraimi underlined QTA's "keen interest" to attract tourists from Malaysia by
pointing out that Qatar Airways had increased the frequency of connections with
KL to 11 flights a week.

"The bottomline is that Qatar has traditionally maintained a strong business
relationships with Malaysia and Singapore," he said.

Malaysian companies, he said, were present in Qatar in a "big way".

"We have a lot of Malaysians stopping in Doha for shopping and other reasons,
availing of our '48 hours in Qatar' programme. Malaysians are given visas on
arrival," Al Nuraimi said.

Qatar has made "substantial investments" in both Malaysia and Singapore.

Malaysian companies are involved in building infrastructure in Qatar, including
the airport and highways.

The country's new mega-airport project, which is expected to be completed by
2012, involves a number of Malaysian companies.

Qatar started promoting tourism in a strategic manner four years ago.

With tourism posting good growth, Al Nuraimi said Qatar was not interested in
promoting mass tourism.

Qatar's hotel bookings had posted a 25 per cent increase, he said.

"We lacked hotel rooms in the past and since we have a lot more business people
coming to Qatar, we felt we needed more rooms," he said.
-- BERNAMA



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