Although huge investments have been made in promotion, it is proving difficult to attract visitors. Last year, everything in Qatar was focused on the World Cup, but now that attention has shifted to the Expo. The Floriade in Almere ended up as a financial debacle, but Qatar does not seem to have heeded this warning, AD writes.
For Expo 2023, the Al Bidda city park was completely wiped out. Despite the size of the event and the many pavilions, including a Dutch one, there were hardly any visitors. Qatar is looking for ways to be less dependent on oil and gas revenues and wants to become a tourist destination like Dubai. However, the challenges are great, such as climate change making the emirate increasingly hot and competition from neighboring countries. Read more here (NL).