Qatar Airways officials encourage more Davaoeños to visit the Arab country and experience their tourist destinations now that they have launched the Davao-Doha route.
“We are looking at religious travel to the Holy Land. We are also looking for leisure travel. As we have seen, there are few leisure travelers from Davao and the Southern Philippines, also from Manila,” Qatar Airways Country Manager of UAE, Rohan Seneviratne said during the media conference on Wednesday.
He said Qatar serves as the third largest destination for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) with more than 255,000 residing in Qatar or 17% of their total population. With the opening of the direct flight, Seneviratne said they are expecting more Filipinos to visit their country especially from the Southern Philippines.
“We are delighted to now be able to connect travelers directly to Davao, one of the busiest in the Philippines. We are confident that leisure travelers will find much enjoy in this city,” Qatar Airways Senior Vice President Asia Pacific Marwan Koleilat said as he also encourages foreign travelers especially Qataris to visit Davao City.
Davao City is the third in the Philippines chosen by Qatar Airways to open a direct flight together with Manila and Clark. Koleilat said they still have no plans of establishing another air connectivity somewhere in the Philippines as they would like to focus more in developing the three areas.
As of now, the airline only caters once a week flight, every Friday with its Boeing 787 Dreamliner with 22 seats in Business Class and 232 seats in Economy Class. However, Koleilat said if the market will grow, they will be adding more flights.
