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Doha
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker has said that Qatar is planning to expand the tourism sector and there will be many investment opportunities.
“We have massive tourism infrastructure investments that will be on offer. It will send invitation to any person that wants to come to Qatar and invest. We guarantee them tax exemptions and repatriation of profits. Qatar has a friendly business regime, with tourism infrastructure investments in place. We plan to expand the tourism sector and there will be many opportunities available,” Al Baker said in an interview with Global Tourism Forum.
Explaining how Qatar Airways has proven its reliability to passengers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Al Baker said, “When all the airlines grounded their planes, we looked at it as an opportunity to continue. We decided that we’ll shrink our network, we’ll reduce our frequencies and we’ll park our aeroplanes. But we’ll still continue to use at least 50-60 percent of the capacity available to us — both for passenger and cargo.”
“Qatar Airways has been a pioneer in delivering millions of tonnes of cargo to all over the world. At the same time it carried 2.1 millions of passengers safely to their homes. And this has also given us a lot of goodwill from people. Because they were stranded all over the world and we were the only reliable partner to carry them,” he said.
The Qatar Airways chief said, “We paid back every single dollar of the ticket fund to the passengers. Qatar Airways wanted to show to the people that we are a very robust company and they can rely on us. And we have come out with flying colours,” he noted.
Al Baker further elaborated that a mixed fleet of aircraft gave Qatar Airways an edge over the others.
“Our mixed fleet of aircraft gives us the edge over competitors who only have one or two types of aircraft. Depending upon the demand, we can rotate the capacity. And this gives QA the resilience it has,” he added.
Explaining Qatar’s readiness to deliver the best ever FIFA World Cup tournament in 2022, Al Baker said, “Qatar is very much on the delivery of FIFA 2022. We also want to deliver the best tournament ever. Several of our stadiums have already been ready. Most of the road infrastructure has been completed. The Metro, which was built in a record time, is already fully functional. All the infrastructure and accommodation facilities will be ready one year ahead of time.”
In addition to this, he said, “We are also having a major expansion at Hamad International Airport (HIA). This was started only four months ago and we are expecting it to be delivered on time by June of 2022.”
Al Baker also threw light on the natural wonders, culture and unique facilities that make Qatar an attractive destination.
“We have lot of natural wonders. We have started to do things that are cultural, inviting people to see the unique beauty and facilities we have. We have a very robust strategy, we will do it well and we will excel in what we do. We are encouraging staycations,” he added.
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28/07/2020
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