The Middle-Eastern sovereign state of Qatar is the world’s fastest growing luxury market, according to a new report on ‘Global Luxury Hotspots’ by Ledbury Research.

Qatar has topped a new list of the world’s top 20 "fast-growing, frontier markets" for the luxury industry.

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In fact the Middle East dominated the top three spots with the United Arab Emirates taking second place in the survey and Saudi Arabia ranked third.

There’s plenty of focus on the small Arabian Peninsula country, which has just 2 million inhabitants, of which only 250,000 are citizens. Set to host the Football World Cup in 2022, Qatar also recently held the World Luxury Expo.

The country owns majority stakes in Italian fashion brand Valentino as well as the landmark department stores Harrods and Printemps in London and Paris. Meanwhile Qatar is also currently developing its own luxury label, Qela.

Nicola Ko, senior luxury analyst at Ledbury Research, said: "Qataris are actually the biggest buyers of goods in the Middle East. But they often shop in Dubai. The Mall of Qatar is currently being built however, and with infrastructure to be improved in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup, the luxury industry has significantly more potential to grow in the country."

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According to Ko, another country to watch is Nigeria which is ranked 6th in the Global Luxury Hotspots list. With 32,000 millionaires in Nigeria, including large numbers of "hugely aspirational" male consumers, driving luxury demand, it’s an increasingly large market.