Rak In The Spotlight

Once a sleepy weekend getaway for UAE residents, Ras Al Khaimah is rapidly transforming into an international destination in its own right.

- Robert Anderson

If you mentioned the name Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) in many parts of the world five years ago, few would know to where you were referring.

The UAE’s northern emirate has walked a far more modest path when it has come to drawing attention to itself than its siblings to the south – Dubai and Abu Dhabi – and as such has remained relatively unknown outside the Gulf region.

However, fast forward to 2017 and times are changing, particularly as reduced economic sentiment and austerity measures hit travel in other parts of the region.

First quarter data from STR shows average hotel revenue per available room (RevPAR) in RAK up 2.5 per cent year-on-year in comparison to declines of 4 and 8 per cent respectively in neighbouring Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Similarly the emirate’s average occupancy increased 6.2 per cent to 75.5 per cent in Q1 in contrast to a 1.4 per cent dip across the Middle East to 70.5 per cent.

“There has been a very good spill over of this fantastic growth in performance from last year,” says Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) CEO Haitham Mattar.

“A lot of this is testament to the activities and events that we have done throughout the year or actually throughout the past 18 to 24 months.”

RAKTDA, which was established in 2011 with the aim of attracting one million tourists to the emirate by the end of 2018, has been spearheading efforts to boost Ras Al Khaimah’s standing on a global level.

Over the past two years the organisation has established representative offices in key markets such as the UK, India, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Germany to drive awareness of the destination.

These efforts went into overdrive in 2016 with RAKTDA upping its marketing spend by 85 per cent to boost partnerships with key tourism agencies and airlines and increase its attendance at trade shows.