I rather suspect that Qatar's "popularity" is a combination of the points raised by MBK above ie manipulation of the statistics concerning entry into the country combined with the fact that most of the countries on the list provided by Fubar are or have recently been in the midst of the Arab Spring movement/uprising meaning that some of these countries are off the radar of genuine tourists for obvious reasons - therefore by default, although globally falling in its appeal to tourists, in competition with the MENA region, of course Qatar is climbing - it has safety on its side, but frankly, not a lot else!!!!