Days before Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s scheduled official visit to Qatar, the Middle Eastern country was in the news for something it hadn’t really been credited with since the 2022 World Cup — a tourism boom.

The number of international visitors to Qatar has hit 2 million so far in 2025 after touching 5.1 million in 2024 — a 25 percent year-on-year growth — all in less than three years since Qatar spent billions on hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup that shone the global spotlight on it, and earned Qatar a grudging hospitality nod.

There is nothing grudging, however, about the official enthusiasm for the numbers, as Qatar’s target for 2030 was 6 million to 7 million visitors, and it looks set to surpass the target much sooner than anticipated. According to a news report, the CEO of Visit Qatar said the Gulf nation — which has been steadfastly pursuing economic diversification — will reach its goal of having tourism contribute about 12 percent of GDP potentially ahead of the 2030 target.

According to a World Bank report issued in April 2024, the positive trend in tourism stimulated other sectors, “with strong backward linkages evident in the 15 percent growth of the hospitality sector in H1 (the first half of) 2023, making it the fastest-growing sector. Additionally, the transportation and entertainment sectors experienced 9 percent and 6 percent growth respectively.”

Is there a lesson somewhere here for Hong Kong, where the added value of the tourism industry amounted to HK$75.3 billion ($9.68 billion), accounting for 2.6 percent of its GDP in 2023?

More than two years after Lee toured Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in February 2023, he returned to the Middle East with official stops in Qatar and Kuwait — also member states of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.

Lee’s 50-member delegation for his six-day visit to Qatar and Kuwait, which started on Saturday, notably includes for the first time more than 20 Chinese mainland entrepreneurs, alongside Hong Kong business and government officials. The mainland representation from the powerhouse provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, together with the Hong Kong side, spans sectors including finance, industry and commerce, trade, infrastructure, information technology, energy, transportation, and logistics.

The inclusion of mainland entrepreneurs comes following Lee’s strategic visit to Zhejiang in April, and the composition of the delegation offers potential for the visit to aim at much more than core competence such as high-tech manufacturing or tech transfer.

Hong Kong bureaucrats have been repeatedly insisting that the special administrative region has much to offer the Gulf nations. Perhaps a little reflection on what the Gulf nations may have to offer Hong Kong may not be such a bad thing

Qatar has a population of 3 million and a GDP of $221.4 billion, while Kuwait’s population stands at 4.9 million with a GDP of $161.8 billion. Hong Kong has a population of 7.5 million and welcomed 44.5 million visitors in 2024. Over the just-concluded five-day Labor Day holiday, there were about 920,000 trips from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong, exceeding the Travel Industry Council’s estimate of 800,000. Hong Kong’s Tourism Board expects 49 million arrivals this year.

While digital transformation and economic diversification have been driving the Gulf nations’ structural evolution for years, an International Monetary Fund analysis shows that hosting the World Cup soccer tournament accelerated Qatar’s economic diversification into nonhydrocarbon sectors. According to a July 2024 report, “The public investment program helped drive most of Qatar’s economic diversification over the past decade, contributing on average 5 to 6 percentage points annually to nonhydrocarbon real GDP growth.”

According to a recent news report, Qatar is looking to position itself as the “capital of sports”, as it is set to hold events that include the biggest-ever edition of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup, and the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Lusail International Circuit.

An April 2025 World Bank report projects Qatar’s nonhydrocarbon growth to stay strong at 3.3 percent, supported by manufacturing, construction, and tourism, “driven by major events such as the Formula 1 Grand Prix and an expanding cruise industry. The artificial intelligence and smart infrastructure investments are expected to further enhance productivity and business efficiency”.

Also, from a soft power perspective, it is impossible to overlook Qatar’s role as a global mediator. In April, Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs was quoted as saying that Qatar considers mediation the backbone of its foreign policy.

According to an April 2025 World Bank report, while Kuwait’s oil output fell 7 percent in the first three quarters of 2024, the nonoil or nonhydrocarbon sector expanded by 1 percent. Kuwait’s nonoil sector is forecast to expand 1.6 percent in 2025.

So, it may not be always about perceived core competence.

Hong Kong bureaucrats have been repeatedly insisting that the special administrative region has much to offer the Gulf nations. Perhaps a little reflection on what the Gulf nations may have to offer Hong Kong may not be such a bad thing.

The author, who was born in Kolkata, India, is an award-winning Hong Kong-based journalist, current affairs commentator and English fiction writer.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.