Ras Al Khaimah Development Authority (Ras Al Khaimah TDA) had welcomed 1,001,495 visitors to the emirate until the end of November, thus achieving the one-million tourist target a month ahead of schedule and generating a revenue boost of Dh582.7 million ($144 million).

The visitor flow was from various source markets including Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Ukraine and Czech Republic, with Germany, as its strongest source market with more than 283,733 visitors followed by the UAE with 267,616 visitors and Russia with 136,430 visitors, said the tourism officials.

With regard to hotel occupancy, Ras Al Khaimah hotels, including the beach resorts and city hotels performed very well during the January to November period, showing impressive growth in all key areas with 2.19 per cent for the beach resorts and same average as 2011 for city hotels.

Ras Al Khaimah TDA said the revenue per available room (RevPar) improved by 22.41 per cent for the beach resorts and 6.78 per cent for the city hotels, resulting in total hotel revenue increasing to almost Dh582.7 million, up 45.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2011.

Commenting on the growth, Victor Louis, the chief operating officer, said: “Ras Al Khaimah TDA was established in May 2011 and for the second year, we have exceeded our targets: in 2011 we have welcomed 835,200 exceeding 2011 target to receive 800,000 visitors and we achieved the 2012 target of welcoming 1 million visitors one month ahead of schedule."

"This has been achieved due to the joint co-operation of our travel partners both within Ras Al Khaimah and beyond, and is testimony to Ras Al Khaimah’s capability and attractiveness as a tourist and tourism investment destination," he noted.

Louis said the emirate now aims to welcome 1.2 million visitors by 2013 besides increasing the hotel room inventory to 10,000 rooms by 2016.

"We are working towards achieving these goals, where new attractions, hotels and resorts are already due to open including the 349-room Waldorf Astoria RAK luxury property, the 632-room resort Bab Al Bahr, both scheduled to open in 2013; the 340-key DoubleTree by Hilton Resort at Marjan Island, scheduled to open in 2014 and the 442-rooms Crowne Plaza RAK to open in 2015 on Marjan Islands."

"We are also continuing the charter flights from European destinations as well as explore potential charter flights opportunities from further European cities directly to Ras Al Khaimah," he added.-TradeArabia News Service