International visitors drive Ras Al Khaimah's tourism ambition
Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, India and Kazakhstan help emirate towards 900,000 visitor target in 2017
Ras Al Khaimah has notched up a new record for international visitor arrivals, with the first 10 months of this year seeing the emirate register a 12 percent surge.
The emirate, which has been diversifying its tourism product into the adventure activity sector, is within striking distance of its 900,000 target for this year, a statement said.
“International arrivals are showing the strongest growth with the emerging markets of the Czech Republic, Poland, India and Kazakhstan greatly contributing to this healthy performance,” said Haitham Mattar, CEO, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA).
“These new source markets are contributing to continuing strong results from Germany and the UK and a much welcome bounce-back in the number of Russians choosing to vacation in the emirate.”
Ras Al Khaimah has witnessed increases across all key growth indicators in October. Hotel occupancy edged up by 1 percent to 69 percent, guest nights climbed 14 percent, while the average length of stay rose 8.89 percent to 3.3 days.
“We are now receiving more guests than ever, they are staying longer than ever and spending more, which is a direct result of product diversification and an uplift in our events calendar,” added Mattar.
The first 10 months of this year saw a 65.25 percent year-on-year increase in Russian visitors, while 17.28 percent more British visitors holidayed in the emirate.
The Indian market has produced a 19.23 percent lift in arrivals, while Czech visitors climbed by 62.43 percent, the number of Polish visitors trebled, there was a 22.49 percent increase in the number of Slovaks opting to vacation in Ras Al Khaimah, while arrivals from Saudi Arabia also increased by 5.97 percent.
“We are now very well placed for meeting our 2017 visitor target and with the imminent launch of the world’s longest zip line in the Hajar Mountains around the UAE’s highest peak, Jebel Jais, we envisage a corresponding rise in the number of adventure tourist arrivals,” said Mattar.
RAKTDA is looking to reach one million tourist arrivals by the end of 2018 and is gearing up for a raft of new hotel and resort openings planned to meet increasing demand. An additional 4,445 hotel and resort rooms are expected to come on line in the emirate over the next three years.
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