Doha, Qatar: Museums and heritage sites in the country have seen a significant jump in the number of visitors over the past two years, almost doubling since December 2022, a Qatar Museums official has said.
“The National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) saw 600,000 visitors in its first year, and what I can tell you, at least from a heritage perspective, is that our numbers are more than double what we used to do for the World Cup,” said Abdullatif Al Jasmi, who is Director of Cultural Heritage Protection at Qatar Museums (QM).
Speaking to The Peninsula recently, Al Jasmi said Qatar’s museums have also seen an increasing interest not only from the local education institutions but also foreign schools and colleges.
“The number of school visits has jumped from maybe two or three visits per month to three to five visits per week.
Abdullatif Al Jasmi, Director of Cultural Heritage Protection at Qatar Museums (QM)
“There are now international colleges and international institutions that are coming in specifically to visit either museums or sites or exhibitions. That used to happen maybe once every two years, and now that happens consistently every quarter. I think as an exposure, we continue to forge in that direction.”
Talking about Qatar Museums’ journey so far and the future plans, he said QM is the country’s preeminent institution for the endowment of arts and culture, overseeing the Museum of Islamic Art and MIA Park, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of Qatar, QM Gallery Al Riwaq, QM Gallery Katara and the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum.
“This is an institution that started in 2005 and we continue to forge through a series of future museums in addition to the five that we have opened. We are overseeing over 9,000 heritage sites, and every year we continue to open a few more for the public. Over the next five to seven years, we have a few openings throughout the country, including heritage sites in the northwest Qatar that will be accessible to the public.
“We have three other museums that are currently in planning that will be seeing the light of day before 2030.”
Al Jasmi added: “We have a few heritage trails that we are working on. And we are working towards future nomination of heritage sites for inscription in international lists such as the Arab Heritage List and the Islamic Heritage List in addition to Unesco.”
Talking about the World Population Day, which QM celebrated in collaboration with Permanent Population Committee recently under the theme of “Towards a Better Life”, Al Jasmi said: “We believe that cultural heritage being the achievement of human intellect is the right platform to communicate how human intellect can lead to a better life through the worlds of culture, through arts, through museums, through collections, through exhibitions, something that propagates to the environment around you, but also something that affects your beliefs, your principles, and it changes how you interact with others.
“It is literally the platform that humanity as a whole can unite over. That’s why there is a term coined as world heritage because world heritage is important to humanity, not to a nation or to a site.” QM’s future museums include Dadu, Children’s Museum of Qatar, Qatar Auto Museum, Art Mill Museum and the Lusail Museum. “We’re trying to turn Qatar into a cultural hub for the region,” he added.
