DOHA, 2 May 2004 — Gas-rich Qatar unveiled yesterday a $15 billion-$20-billion infrastructure plan in a bid to put the ambitious Gulf state on the world tourist map over the next 10 years. Most of the money would come from the government, Tourism Authority Chairman Akbar Al-Baker said on the opening day of the Global Travel and Tourism Summit in the Qatari capital.

“We expect tourism growth to more than double in the next six years from the 400,000 tourists expected in 2004 to more than one million tourists in 2010,” said Baker, describing the figures as very conservative. “The initiatives in this new tourism masterplan will position Qatar as a leading high-quality tourism destination,” he told a press conference.

The investment includes a $5-billion airport to handle 50 million passengers a year by 2015 as part of the aggressive expansion built on the development of the third-largest gas reserves in the world. A contract to build the airport, partly on reclaimed land, was signed in January with US engineering giant Bechtel. It is due to open in 2008.

Baker also listed:

• the completion of eight new hotels in the next two years to add 2,550 rooms

• a 32-square kilometer (12.5-square mile) North Beach Development of 10 resort hotels, two golf courses, 15,000 villas and apartments, as well as huge commercial and retail shopping areas. Work is set to begin early next year.

• Pearl Island is due to open in September 2006 covering four square kilometers (1.5 square miles) and include four marinas, three more hotels and 7,600 homes

• a series of landmark projects from a Museum of Islamic Arts to a National Library, Photography Museum, three more resort villages, historic fort renovation and new sports facilities to host the 2006 Asian Games.

“We want to show the world that we are serious,” said Baker, who is also chief executive officer of Qatar Airways. “When we say we are going to do something we mean it.”

To support that masterplan, he noted that Qatar Airways has $8.2 billion of new aircraft on order and plans to serve 70 destinations by 2006.

The latest scheme trumps a 2003 masterplan which promised more than $4 billion for projects to promote tourism in the emirate of just 650,000 people, most of them foreigners.