Gulf cities have witnessed rapid urban growth where new migrant communities from various cultural backgrounds
have been evolving over the last two decades. This paper explores perceptions of liveable urban environments in
Qatar’s capital city, Doha. An attitude survey of 280 migrant professionals from different cultural backgrounds
engaged in the high service sector was conducted. A profile for each cultural group including westerners, middle
easterners, Indians and Southeast Asians was developed to analyse the way in which the key liveability factors are
perceived. Factors were classified into two overarching categories: urban life and urban spaces. Urban life category
included aspects that pertain to traffic and movement experience, residential satisfaction, shopping experience,
and satisfaction regarding leisure and service spaces. Urban space category included attractiveness, iconicity and
familiarity, which were attitudinally explored in four public open spaces. The inquiry has uncovered a number of
concerns related to traffic experience, housing quality, parking spaces, school facilities and shopping opportunities.
This may stymie the city’s global attractiveness success on the global stage while warranting the need for addressing
liveability as a part of future development plans.
