THE West Australian Govt has labelled Perth as the “western gateway to Australia from Europe” following the launch of Qantas’ new non-stop service between the WA capital and London Heathrow (see page 2).
“We will do everything we can to make the most of this opportunity to help boost our local tourism industry and create local jobs,” WA Premier Mark McGowan commented.
Tourism Minister Paul Papalia said that based on bookings to-date on the new Qantas direct return service indicated that 15% of passengers were stopping in Perth for three or more days, and 7% were staying for over 2 weeks.
Pictured at Heathrow flanked by Qantas cabin crew from left are WA Minister for Tourism, Paul Papalia; Federal Shadow Minister for Tourism Anthony Albanese; WA Premier Mark McGowan; VisitBritain head of Tourism Affairs Ant Pickles, Qantas Group chief executive officer Alan Joyce and Federal Tourism Minister Steven Ciobo.
MEANWHILE, Qantas opened its new T3/T4 transit lounge at Perth Airport ahead of the maiden service – view lots of images at facebook.com/traveldaily.
Source: traveldaily