Middle East Hotels update
Jebel Jais mountain in Ras Al Khaimah is home to the world’s longest zip line
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
for its money, thanks to the high- profile opening of the $1 billion Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi theme park on Yas Island in July. This will be followed by the eventual unveiling of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi painting at the Louvre Abu Dhabi gallery. The artwork, purchased for an eye-watering $450 million, had been due to be unveiled in September this year before being delayed at the last minute.
Even before these landmark launches, Abu Dhabi had been enjoying a record-breaking year for tourist arrivals – rising by 2% to two million during the first half of 2018, so the chances are high that a new annual record will be achieved by the end of December.
Undersecretary at the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, Saif Saeed Ghobash, adds: “We are on track to achieve our targets of consecutive record-breaking years. We will continue to focus hard on our key markets, with milestone events, such as the Etihad Airways Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and Abu Dhabi Art.”
The emerging emirates Looking beyond the main gateways of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah (ME500) has moved quickly to establish itself as an international destination in its own right. The
strategy is clearly paying off, with visitor figures up by 14% for the first half of 2018 to more than 500,000, putting it on course to achieve its target of one million arrivals this year.
Russia has established itself as the largest inbound market to Ras Al Khaimah, with a 49.8% increase in the first six months of the year. Germany and the UK are the emirate’s second and third-largest inbound markets.
Ras Al Khaimah is promoting adventure tourism – the Jebel Jais Flight, the world’s longest zip line, will open a second phase at the end of the year, while 2019 will see the opening of the Survival Training Academy and new hiking and mountain-biking trails. Sport is another key area of development, with Ras Al Khaimah hosting golf’s European Challenge Tour Grand Final last week (October 31-November 3). A major expansion of the emirate’s largest shopping mall, Manar Mall, is also due to be completed in December. All these developments should help Ras Al Khaimah move towards its target of three million annual visitors by 2025.
Fellow northern emirate Sharjah (ME400) has an even more ambitious target of reaching 10 million international tourists by 2021 as it looks to target key Asian markets such as India, China,
world’s tallest indoor climbing wall
Indonesia and Malaysia. Part of this increase will be driven by an expansion of Sharjah airport, which will be able to handle 25 million passengers per year by 2023. Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) wants to add more international festivals to its calendar in addition to existing events such as the Sharjah International Book Fair, Sharjah Light Festival and the Formula 1 Powerboat World Championship. Fujairah (ME401), the only emirate based on the Indian Ocean coastline, is also targeting the lucrative Chinese and Indian markets, with plans to open tourist offices in both countries over the next two years. The emirate welcomed 700,000 international tourists in 2017, up by 4% on the previous year, as it bids to reach the one million mark within four years. Ajman (ME540), the smallest of the seven emirates, located directly to the north of Sharjah, has also been enjoying impressive growth during 2018 with arrivals rising by 14% for the first half of the year. The Department of Tourism Development hopes to reach 700,000 annual visitors by 2019, fuelled by increased hotel development. With so much development to all parts of its tourism infrastructure, the UAE will continue to be one of the destinations to watch in the coming years.
Clymb Abu Dhabi has the
With such ambitious growth plans across the United Arab Emirates, hotel development is continuing apace. As a whole, there are currently 208 hotel projects either in planning, development or under construction in the UAE, which will add just under 59,000 rooms, according to Lodging Econometrics. Dubai continues to see the lion’s share of these planned hotels – the emirate’s 161 projects account for 77% of properties in the pipeline, which will add another 46,000 rooms to an existing stock that currently stands at about 111,000. Dubai only ranks behind New York and Houston in terms of the number of new hotel projects in development and is the number- one destination globally for total planned new rooms.
While the other emirates cannot match that level of development, they are still seeing signifi cant additions to their hotel portfolios. Abu Dhabi’s notable new entrants this year include Saadiyat Rotana Resort & Villas, Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi Edition and Al Wathba Desert Resort.
Meanwhile Ras Al Khaimah is set to increase its roomstock, from 6,500 to more than 12,000 by 2022, as new hotels from international brands such as Marriott, Movenpick, Sheraton, Anantara, Intercontinental, Hampton by Hilton and Crowne Plaza are set to be unveiled in the coming years.
Even the smallest emirate, Ajman, has seen a 10% rise in rooms over the past year, and currently has 38 hotels offering a total of 3,700 rooms.
The Abu Dhabi Edition hotel 06.11.2018
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