Horizon Manor: ideally located
A luxury hotel opening on the Corniche next month will give a new impetus to Qatar’s hospitality sector, already enjoying a boom.
Horizon Manor, the Gulf Horizon group’s latest venture, will have 182 rooms, most of them with seafront view.
The hotel will have state-of-the-art conference facilities, managing director M Rajan said yesterday.
“Doha is now one of the top places for holding regional and global meetings and conventions and the state’s hotel industry is ready to tap the opportunities,” Rajan said. “Horizon Manor is our initiative in that direction.”
It is “ideally” located - five minutes drive from the new airport arrival terminal and close to the Museum of Islamic Art, he said.
“Hotels in Qatar should also give top priority to leisure travellers as the city is fast becoming a regional tourism hub,” Rajan added, highlighting the recent statement by Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) chairman Ahmed Abdullah al-Nuaimi that the hospitality sector in the state witnessed significant growth in 2010.
“Even though world tourism indicators had suffered severely in 2009, the first half of 2010 witnessed a surge in Qatar’s own tourism indicators as the country became a favourite destination for sports and culture tourism,” al-Nuaimi said recently.
Welcoming the QTA chairman’s statement, Rajan thanked the tourism authority for its measures to support and encourage the state’s hotel industry.
A billiard room will be among the noted features of Horizon Manor. It will also have four restaurants: one of them, Saarangi, specialising in traditional food.
“Other recreation facilities at Horizon Manor include a roof-top swimming pool, saunas, Jacuzzis,a beauty parlour-cum-spa and a gymnasium,” Rajan said.
“We are aiming to get a five-star status and our facilities and amenities offered will be in line with that.”
The hotel is expected to open in the last week of February.
QTA expects the launch 45 new hotels in Qatar in a year’s time.
To encourage tourism, QTA has adopted a strategy aimed at people visiting Qatar on business visas to tour the state’s top destinations.
With 66 hotels operating in the country, Qatar now offers visitors a selection of 17 five-star hotels, 11 four-star, 21 three-star, 14 two-star and three one-star hotels. 
This amounts to some 9,574 hotel rooms, with 4,529 five-star, 2,604 four-star, 1,579 three-star, 505 two-star and 57 one-star rooms. The statistics indicate an increase from 2009’s 58 hotels and 8,495 rooms.