Local leaders: Ras Al Khaimah tourist body looks to recruit more Emiratis in hospitality

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Ras Al Khaimah’s Tourism Development Authority will attempt to attract more Emiratis into the tourism and hospitality sector as part of a new, three-year plan aimed at boosting the number of overnight visitors to 1.5 million by 2021, up from at least one million expected this year, its CEO has told Zawya.

The emirate, which is known for its beaches and mountains, has a target of employing 10,000 more people in the tourism and hospitality sector by 2021, according to a press release issued by the authority on Tuesday.

“The focus is going to be on young Emiratis who we can attract to our sector,” Haitham Mattar, the CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, told Zawya in a phone interview on Tuesday.

He said the authority is targeting young university graduates and is working with the American University of Ras Al Khaimah to develop a two-year tourism and hospitality programme. He said he does not have a timeline for that programme yet.

“Emiratisation is our core focus,” Mattar said, adding that the targeted Emirati employees can be from any emirate, and that there will also be job opportunities available for foreigners.

He said the emirate’s stock of hotels is set to grow substantially within the next few years, with the addition of several new international hotels, such as the Movenpick, Hampton by Hilton, Sheraton, Anantara, Intercontinental, Millennium and Conrad brands.

Mattar said the Intercontinental and Anantara are expected to open first - both by late 2019 or early 2020. In September, the CEO of RAK Properties, Samuel Sidiqi, told Zawya that the 350-key Intercontinental Hotel is likely to open before the 343-key Anantara hotel. Both will both be based at RAK Properties’ 10 billion dirham ($2.72 billion) Mina Al Arab project.

In total, the number of new hotels planned will add 5,000 new rooms to the current stock of 6,500, according to the press release.

“We will exceed our target of one million visitors by the end of this year… Last year, we had 840,000 visitors and the year before we had 720,000,” Mattar said, defining visitors as people who stay in a hotel in the emirate for at least one night.

Increasing tourism revenues is one of the main economic targets of the United Arab Emirates. The country has announced a number of new rules for tourist visas this year, including exempting transit tourists from visa fees for stays of up to 48 hours. It also cancelled visa fees for tourists aged 18 years or below coming to the UAE during the period between July 15 and September 15.

However, tourism growth in Dubai, the UAE’s tourism and business hub, has stalled this year. Earlier this month, the Dubai government’s tourism department reported flat year-on-year visitor numbers for the first nine months of 2018, at 11.58 million overnight visits.

Adventure tourism and cruises

Matter said Ras Al Khaimah is attracting a different type of tourists than those who travel to Dubai, offering more activity holidays.

“If you want modern… glamour, you will go to Dubai. But if you want something different, quiet… but also offers a great deal of adventure… like you go do the zipline in a mountain, then on the same day you can go to the sea and go fishing or diving, and on the same day you can ride a horse in the desert... you can do all three in the same day (in Ras Al Khaimah) as the locations are near one another.”

He said the emirate’s top source markets for tourists are: Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, Kazakhstan, Poland, the Czech Republic and Scandinavia.

Last month, Ras Al Khaimah Port opened the first of two new deepwater berths. It had launched a new cruise terminal for smaller cruise vessels earlier in the year.

“Our port is ready and the berth is ready and open, the terminals are ready. We are now in discussions with one cruise operator so far,” Matter said, declining to name the operator set to use the terminal until a deal is sealed, which he expects to happen by mid-January.

Matter said the decline in oil prices is “an advantage for tourism”.

“Dropping oil prices mean lower airfares and people can travel more because the airline travel is cheaper,” Mattar said.

He said the emirate has several direct flights including from Poland and Czech Republic, but added that having direct flights is not a major issue as Dubai International Airport is only 45 away.

Mattar said this year’s rise in the value of the United States dollar, to which the UAE dirham is pegged, did not have “any impact” on the number of visitors coming from Europe to the emirate. The dollar soared to record highs against a number of international currencies this year, due to rising interest rates and investors’ worries over the impact of a potential U.S.-China trade war on the world’s economic growth prospects.