The Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development A
uthority (TDA) recently disclosed the total number of visitors to the emirate from January to May 2012 was recorded at 523,568 visitors, generating a revenue boost at almost AED277 million (US$75.5 million).
The main visitor source markets were Germany, UAE, Russia, Austria, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Italy, Sweden and United Kingdom with Germany being the strongest market bringing in more than 172,700 visitors followed by UAE with 114,000 visitors.
Compared to the year 2011, Ras Al Khaimah hotels have performed consistently well for the first five months of 2012 with occupancy and daily ratesincreasing across both beach and city properties resulting a total hotel revenue of almost AED277 million (US$75.5 million). The beach hotels and resorts recorded an occupancy average of 82.42% with an increase of 5.9% as well as a 23.16% increase in average daily rate, where the revenue per available room (Rev Par) improved by 32.66%. The city hotels showed an increase in the average daily rate by 20.64% and in the Rev Par by 32.79% as well as the occupancy, which increased by 6.75% reaching the average of 73.73%.
“This is an extremely encouraging result that both supports and bolsters Ras Al Khaimah as a global affordable luxury destination,” said Victor Louis, Chief Operating Officer, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority.
Elaborating on future plans Louis said: “In the coming months, we are working on a series of new tourism projects with a budget of US$500 million that was assigned by the Government of Ras Al Khaimah until end of 2013. We are also tapping into new source markets and looking into expanding and developing charter flights from European cities after the success of the charter flights from Germany, Austria and Sweden that we introduced in 2011, bringing more 55,000 visitors to the emirate.”
In light of the most recent visitor figures and with new attractions, hotels and resorts due to open, Ras Al Khaimah TDA is confident of achieving its goal of welcoming 1.2 million visitors by 2013 and reaching the hotel room inventory of 10,000 rooms by 2016.