More than 800,000 tourists flocked to Ras Al Khaimah last year as the UAE’s most northerly emirate increased the number of charter flights from Europe and enjoyed a rebound in the number of Russian visitors.
According to new figures from the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA), the number of visitors coming to RAK in 2016 grew by 10.9 per cent compared with the previous year to 800,701 from 740,383 in 2015.
RAKTDA hopes to attract 1 million visitors to the emirate annually by the end of 2019.
Hotels in RAK reported that average occupancy increased 10 per cent over the period to 71 per cent from January to December, the tourism authority said while average length of stay increased to 3.32 days in 2016 from 3.19 days in 2015.
Staycationers from the UAE accounted for the largest number of visitors, making up 41.2 per cent. Germans were the largest overseas source market, accounting for about a tenth of the total, followed by visitors from the UK, Russia and India.
An increase in the value of the Russian rouble against the US dollar last year led to a 19.5 per cent increase in the number of Russian visitors, RAKTDA said.
It said there had also been growth in visitors from Kazakhstan, Egypt, the Philippines and Czech Republic.
The tourism authority said it was also promoting the emirate in China, Poland, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Finland, Switzerland, France and Denmark. As part of the ramp-up of its tourism infrastructure, in November Ras Al Khaimah opened a via ferrata, or protected climbing route, on Jebel Jais with three ziplines, ranging from 48 metres to 300 metres. It also plans to open the world’s longest zip line. Last year the tourism authority signed up Polish tour operator Itaka to bring package tourists to the emirate and added an extra weekly flight from German travel company TUI.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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