Qatar Airways’ launch of direct flights to Cardiff will further cement the already strong relationship between Qatar and the UK, says Alun Cairns, secretary of state for Wales at the UK Government.
“Qatar Airways brings significant opportunities for Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. To have such a flagship carrier with an excellent reputation flying to Cardiff is something, which is very important to us,” Cairns said in an interview with Gulf Times on Monday.
For Wales, he said, Qatar is the second largest export market. Wales exported commodities worth £158mn to Qatar, which includes foodstuff (meat in particular), dairy products and machinery items.
Wales is also home to the South Hook LNG Terminal at Milford Haven, which is co-owned by Qatar Petroleum. Qatar provides for 24% of the UK’s gas supply through this terminal.
Cairns said a majority of Qatari students in the UK study in various leading universities in Wales.
“Besides providing convenient connections to Qatari students in and around Wales, the Qatar Airways Cardiff service will also bring Australasia closer to us. In Cardiff, we are also working hard to try and secure a North American link. This means, Cardiff may become a stop-over destination for Australasia and Doha to North America.”
He said the direct service to Cardiff would also have the prospects of providing linkages between the universities in Qatar and in Wales.
Cairns said Wales remained the “No 1 location” in Europe in attracting foreign direct investments. Wales used to attract larger proportion of FDIs than its population share.
He said Cardiff and Wales provided “incredible investment opportunities” for Qatari investors. Cardiff is the fastest growing UK city with a projected population growth of more than 20% in the next 20 years, taking its population in excess of 458,000 (by 2036) from 361,000 in 2016.
Cardiff is the hub for Wales’ creative industries sector and other growth sectors include digital, fintech, advanced manufacturing and tourism and leisure.
Cairns said the total economic impact of tourism in Cardiff is £1.3bn (up 7% on 2016). The total number of visitors to Cardiff in 2017 stood at 21.3mn, up 5% on the previous year.
He said lots of opportunities to invest in the hotels sector exist as Wales now face huge shortage of guest rooms.
Cardiff has recently launched an Economic Development Green Paper, a key strand of which is attracting more tourists and reinforcing the city centre and the Cardiff Bay as leisure destinations and a base for high quality hotel investment.
Cairns also informed that a “Welsh trade mission is coming to Qatar next week. This goes to show how important the Qatari market is to us.”
The UK secretary of state for Wales is in Doha to join a top-level delegation led by Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar al-Baker on the inaugural Doha–Cardiff Qatar Airways service.
