Originally Posted by
KingCanute
I also spotted that on the Visit Qatar website a couple of days ago. But before anyone gets too excited, the MOPH website still says this today:
Now that may be a delay in updating their info, or an error at Visit Qatar. We shall see...
It's not exactly unusual for there to be confusion and conflict in the promulgation and interpretation of policies introduced by the airline or, indeed, by government bodies ....
The thirty day rule is a sensible refinement of the original badly thought out regulation. The policy was clearly aimed at longer stay visitors, most will be family or friends of resident workers, and some might be intent on a form of medical tourism.
There are all sorts of reasons the government does not wish to be explicit in targeting this cohort of visitors; but the tourism sector was upset that short-term independent tourists were getting caught up in the net. Lord knows, post world-cup they have plenty of hotel rooms and excursion places to fill, and discouraging bread-and-butter short-term visitors was the last thing they needed.