"They're working through details and schedules; there's a lot of logistics that goes into new routes," Mr Hill said.

"They'll be looking at an extended sales period, which is typically six months on international services.

"I think we can expect to see more details emerge in the coming months in terms of the number of flights a week and the scheduling of those flights."

Hamad International Airport in Doha last year handled 37.2 million passengers, making it nearly as busy as Sydney, and more development is planned.

There are connections from Doha to many European destinations including Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Zurich, Vienna, London and Edinburgh.

Overseas tourism has been identified as having major economic growth potential for Canberra over the next few years following the introduction of international flights.

Mr Hill said the new service would improve connectivity with Europe and continue the positive momentum achieved with overseas tourism.

He said the Singapore Airlines flights to Singapore and Wellington had opened up new markets in Asia and operators were reporting benefits. This had contributed to rising overall confidence in the sector.

"We've had some record growth in domestic overnight visitors, nearly 2.35 million coming to the ACT in the last 12 months, and about 205,000 international visitors, which is also a record," he said.

"That's always a good thing, but the medium term is also looking good. The Singapore Airlines flights have been a game changer for the ACT."

Mr Hill said anecdotally there were reports of increased visitors from Singapore, Malaysia and China, with official data due in the next few months.

"Domestic tourism is still the mainstay of the market here; we're about 90 per cent domestic and 10 per cent international," he said.

"You would expect that ratio to evolve over the next few years. You can see that going to 80-20 in the next 3-4 years as our international connectivity increases.

"Our objective is to get the value of the tourism economy to $2.5 billion by 2020.

"We're sitting at about $2 billion now, so we're on track. You're probably going to see stronger growth in the international market because the domestic market is fairly stable and mature.

"On the international front, Canberra is not particularly well known so there's a real opportunity to position Canberra as a destination in the Australian context and aviation is the key to unlocking that."

About 250 people are expected to attend the Destination Canberra conference on Thursday and Friday.

Speakers include Tourism Australia managing director John Sullivan, Tigerair Australia commercial director Adam Rowe and parks Australia director Sally Barnes.

There will be workshop sessions including on content marketing and innovation.