Tents, cruise ships and portakabins are being drafted in to plug Qatar's Football fan accommodation shortage. Photo / Getty Images
Tents, cruise ships and portakabins are being drafted in to plug Qatar's Football fan accommodation shortage. Photo / Getty Images
Qatar have said they will pitch 1000 Bedouin tents in the desert to combat the severe room shortages over the Fifa World Cup.
The hosts are hoping to attract over 1.2 million visitors during the 28 day tournament. However there are still questions over where they will stay.
This week, Qatar Tourism announced that it has fewer than 30,000 rooms available during the tournament. According to the tournament organisers 80 per cent of these have already been booked by Fifa's guests.
If it's any consolation to All Whites fans, whose World Cup dreams were ended 1-0 by Costa Rica, those visiting the tournament are facing a $1500-per-night price-hike on accommodation as the Doha runs out of hotel rooms.
Bedouin tents: Illustrations on the official accommodation portal of 'unique accommodation options'. Photo / Screenshot
Omar Al-Jaber, head of accommodation for the tournament's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy told Reuters press agency a solution was in the works.
"We will give the opportunity for fans to live in a desert," he said of the "Bedouin style" tents.
Temporary budget options include the $200 a day portakabins. Photo / Screenshot
As well as erecting more budget options in the desert, Al-Jaber says there will be 200 tents aimed at the more "luxury" end of the market. However, budget accommodation is still thin on the ground.
The Kingdom won hosting rights in 2010. Twelve years on and the accommodation options are still being finalised, less than five months before kick-off.
Qatar has brought in 69000 temporary rooms for the tournament. This is spread across shared villas, portakabin style accommodation and two cruise ships - the MSC Poesia and five-star MSC World Europa.
The freshly built MSC World Europa will be housing fans at the Qatar World Cup in November. Photo / Bernard Biger, Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Supplied
Qatar will float 10,000 rooms on the ships, offering a novel solution to the shortage. While the initial plans with MSC were drawn up in 2019, this represents a huge increase on the 4000 rooms promised three years ago.
The tournament's official accommodation portal gives the price of a suites at around $285 per night.
It is hoped that as teams are knocked out and fans return home, more rooms might be re-released to ease pressure on the overheated accommodation market.
Qatar is flying 180 daily shuttles with neighbouring countries to spread fan accommodation. Photo / Fasyah Halim, Unsplash
As another measure, Qatar has arranged up to 180 daily shuttle flights between Doha and surrounding countries.
Qatar Airways national airline will be running shuttles from Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. "Match Day Shuttle services will benefit from a smooth journey which includes dedicated on-ground transportation between the airport and stadium," said a release from the airline explaining the partnership.
