Victoria welcomes new air services from Qatar Airways
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10 March 2009
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Qatar Airways, the national carrier of the State of Qatar, will introduce new daily non-stop services between Melbourne and Doha, due to start later this year.
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Victorian Industry and Trade Minister Martin Pakula and Victorian Tourism and Major Events Minister Tim Holding said this was fantastic news for Victoria’s tourism industry and another win for Melbourne as a leading gateway city to Australia.
“We are very pleased to welcome Qatar Airways to Victoria and we’re looking forward to working with them to attract even more international visitors here,” Mr Pakula said.
“Middle Eastern carriers are among the fastest growing in the world, emerging as a new focal point in global aviation and Qatar Airways new flights will further open up Victoria to the world.”
In 2007, visitors from the Middle East region contributed $534 million to the Australian economy.
Mr Holding said the new air services show confidence in Victoria as both a business and a tourism destination.
“Qatar’s new daily flights will provide extra capacity to meet the strong demand for services to Melbourne and Victoria and enable us to further expand the number of visitors from the Middle East and Europe,” Mr Holding said.
The most recent International Visitor Survey results for the year ending December 2008 found that international overnight visitors to Victoria increased over the previous year to reach 1.5 million, while international visitor expenditure grew by 9.8 per cent to $3.4 billion.
“Victoria is continuing to buck the downward trend in tourism due largely to our year-round calendar of major events, the increased number of business and conference events and the outstanding regional destinations located close to Melbourne,” he said.
Qatar Airways’ announcement comes on top of other recent aviation wins for Victoria including Emirates’ third daily service, AirAsia X’s new service between Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur, Etihad Airways’ new flights between Abu Dhabi and Melbourne and V Australia’s new service between Melbourne and Los Angeles.
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