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A fan village among the sand dunes close to the Saudi border
will house up to 2,000 visitors in Arabian tents, allowing them
to experience the desert from close quarters, Qatar's World Cup
organizing committee said in a statement on Tuesday.
"We will allow visitors from outside the country to enjoy Qatar
and their football experience in an entirely new way," said the
committee's Abdulaziz al-Mawlawi.
"There will be options for all kinds of budgets..."
Most of the 500,000 fans expected to descend on the tiny country
will stay in hotels and apartments, but an earlier announcement
suggested thousands could also camp under canvas in desert areas
close to stadiums.
Qatar's World Cup bid in 2010 said it would create more than
55,000 rooms for fans but authorities said in January that only
46,000 would be ready, prompting concern about a potential
shortage of accommodation during the tournament.
Qatar has is on track to deliver that number of rooms and is
also looking at promoting private letting services such as
Airbnb as well as putting up spectators on cruise ships docked
along the coast.
Some fans are expected to stay in neighboring countries such as
the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, where hotel rooms and
alcohol may be more readily available, and fly in to watch
matches.
The committee did not say if the desert camps would be
designated as "fanzones", in which conservative Muslim Qatar has
said fans will be allowed to consume alcohol.
Public drinking of alcohol is banned in Qatar, which also limits
the sale of alcohol primarily to luxury hotels.
(Reporting by Tom Finn, editing by Nick Mulvenney)
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