Host Welcome: HM Government of Gibraltar
Transcript
Vijay Daryanani:Welcome to Gibraltar and welcome to the CAPA World Aviation Summit and Awards 2022. It's an absolute pleasure to welcome you to our home. Gibraltar might be small, 2.5 square miles, but we are big in many other ways. Our GDP is approximately £2.5 billion sterling. Our economy is based primarily on financial services, online gaming, maritime services, and tourism. On tourism, we have approximately 10 million tourists a year, most of these arriving through the land frontier with Spain. Our overnight tourism is restricted to the United Kingdom as we only have flights from there. We fly to London Heathrow on British Airways and to London Gatwick, Manchester, Bristol, and Edinburgh on easyJet. You will have noticed one of our most unique tourist attractions in Gibraltar, our airfield. You can walk on our airfield, you can drive on our airfield, You can cycle on our airfield, and of course you can land your plane on our airfield. Gibraltar International Airport has huge potential, and I look forward to discussing this with you over the next 2 days. Cruising is another sector that plays a huge part in our economy. We are one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean, receiving over 200 ships in a year. Today you will see 2 in our port, the Iona being one, a floating city in itself carrying 7,000 people. This is good for our main shopping street, our hospitality sector, and our transport sector. His Majesty's Government of Gibraltar gives a lot of emphasis to cruising and continues to work extremely hard to increase calls to Gibraltar. Our port is another important piece of our economic jigsaw. We are one of the main bunker ports in the region, providing LNG bunkering too. We are committed to the environment and providing cleaner fuels. Our strategic location at the entrance to the Mediterranean, our excellent reputation, and our English law-based system are all vital ingredients to our offering. During COVID we were the only port that was fully operational in the region. We kept on providing all the important services required by the maritime industry, including crew changes, as our airport was also open with 4 flights a week to United Kingdom so that we could stay connected with the outside world for many different reasons. COVID was a frightening challenge for all, and we were no different. Being small, we were fortunate to vaccinate our whole community quickly. Thanks to the British government, who provided us with the necessary vaccines. Due to the successful vaccination programme, we were the only European country to be on the United Kingdom's green list for travel. Last summer saw all our flights full and all our hotels full, as we were— as we received unprecedented overnight tourism from the United Kingdom. I'm glad to report that this year has been similar. with days when not a single room has been available in Gibraltar. 2 days is not enough to see everything that we have to offer in Gibraltar. You will quickly feel the warmth of our people and the manner in which we are so unique. The Gibraltarian is an entrepreneurial character and is known for its energy, for its ingenuity and inventiveness. At the same time as I am delighted that Gibraltar has been able to host such a prestigious event in the aviation calendar. It's a privilege to have such an influential group of airline executives here with us today. You take the decisions and you make the difference. It's events like this that allow us to reconnect, rebuild, and innovate. So please enjoy Gibraltar. Enjoy our sights, our culture, our history, our Britishness. We are extremely proud of this. Make some happy memories and tell your family and friends all about this small but wonderful nation of ours. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible over the next few days. Thank you very much. Thank you, Vijay.
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