Qatar's tourism industry grew by 13% in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012.
Awarding the 2022 soccer World Cup to Qatar's desert state was a "blatant mistake" FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger said on Wednesday, adding that staging the tournament in winter would be just as big a problem.
German Zwanziger's attack on the decision to give the tiny energy-rich Gulf state the world's biggest single sports event comes after FIFA president Sepp Blatter repeated his view that the finals could not be played in the traditional summer slot.
"It was a blatant mistake," Zwanziger, formerly head of the German football federation (DfB) told Sportbild magazine, referring to the decision taken by world soccer's governing body in December 2010.
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Zwanziger, who joined the FIFA executive the following year, also said shifting the tournament to the winter months would put the unity of German football in danger.
"A winter World Cup would mean public viewing with ice skating boots in freezing temperatures," said Zwanziger.
"If the decision was really a mistake it should be lifted and should not become an even bigger burden for those who are not involved by changing it to the winter."
Moving the World Cup to January or February would also have an impact on attendances and television viewing figures for other sporting events like the Australian Open tennis tournament, skiing and the Winter Olympics.
Blatter said a month after the decision was taken that he expected the tournament to be moved to the winter. Last week he said a summer World Cup in Qatar was out of the question.
Temperatures in Qatar in June and July regularly hit 40C (104f) or higher with 45C (113f) recorded last month.
"You can cool down the stadiums but you can't cool down the whole country and you can't simply cool down the ambience of a World Cup," Blatter told a conference in Austria.
"The players must be able to play in the best conditions to play a good World Cup."
Blatter had previously stressed that any request to change the timing of the 2022 World Cup would have to come from the organisers but said last week that the FIFA executive committee would meet to discuss the issue in October.
Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) recently revealed that Qatar's tourism industry grew by 13% in the first quarter of 2013 as compared to 2012, which according to the QTA has been fuelled by the recent hotel boom in the country with 110 hotels under construction last year offering a potential 19,931 extra rooms to visitors. Last year, hotels in Qatar had a total capacity of 13,407 rooms.
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