Ras Al Khaimah: The northernmost emirate of Ras Al Khaimah has said it is on track to smash targets to attract one million visitors by the end of the year.
Haitham Mattar, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority’s (RAKTDA) chief executive officer, said that the government body intended to “hit one million tourists right out of the park. We’re well ahead of target.”
According to the CEO, the first quarter of 2018 saw a 12 per cent increase in visitor numbers over the same period last year. Mattar said that 2017 was itself an extremely successful period for the authority, with 19 per cent growth recorded annually.
Such performance has allowed Ras Al Khaimah to instill confidence and attract investment, remedying some of its problems, such as hotel undersupply.
It currently has a pipeline of 5,000 hotel rooms to deal with rapidly increasing visitor numbers.
“To some extent we have been able to address the issue of undersupply in certain areas. We just announced with Emaar a new Address hotel, and we’re in discussions about potentially adding two new Rove hotels with them too,” Mattar said.
Attributing Ras Al Khamaih’s success to its partnerships with key airlines, and its diversification strategy to position the city-state as a cultural and adventure destination, Mattar is clear about what it takes to be successful.
“The likes of Emirates and flydubai are our largest suppliers. Over 90 per cent of our business comes through Dubai Airport,” he said.
But equally important, Mattar added, was that the authority had “diversified our visitors, our clients, and we’ve diversified our product.”
Nowadays, visitors to the emirate can go scuba diving, ride horses around the mountains, and get strapped in to the longest zip-line in the world.
“This zip-line initiative is an indication of our direction: We’ve announced more hiking and biking trails around Jebel Jais (the UAE’s tallest mountain), the country’s first ever luxury camp … and we continue to look at packages that have more adventure,” he said.
“We want to position Ras Al Khaimah as the adventure of the Middle East,” he added.
Progressive
The emirate’s strategy has proven popular in Europe: The bulk of Ras Al Khaimah’s new visitors come from the Czech Republic and other Eastern European countries.
At least within the UAE, however, Ras Al Khaimah is known for more than just adventure.
“We have been quite liberal in our approach, by demonstrating the relaxed laws. The judicial system has been improved and enhanced, and we recently launched a one day judicial system,” Mattar said.
The system allows tourists to resolve disputes or conflicts, should they arise, within one day.
This was giving visitors the confidence and security of staying in a place that had “easy and flexible laws,” Mattar said.
Pressed on the issue of gambling following this week’s announcement surrounding the arrival of infamous casino and hotel brand Caesars Palace in Dubai, Mattar said: “We don’t see casinos as a driving force for tourism.”
“Take away religious beliefs, we’re not in any rush to build casinos if it’s not going to build tourism,” he added.
