While other international hotel companies have concentrated their expansion efforts in the UAE on Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Hilton has been rapidly growing in the sleepy northern emirate of Ras al Khaimah. The US company is hoping to capitalise as the emirate aims for tourism to eventually make up a fifth of its economy by positioning itself as a cheaper alternative holiday spot to Dubai.
"I believe that for Ras al Khaimah the opportunity to have the advantage of a pure leisure destination will be a big plus," said Essam Abouda, the vice president of operations at Hilton Worldwide, Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean. "What will help Ras al Khaimah to reach that is the accessibility, such as promoting the destination to charter flights, which you don't have in Dubai," said Mr Abouda.
With the opening of Hilton's DoubleTree hotel in Ras al Khaimah at the beginning of April, the operator now has three hotels in the emirate, more properties than it has under management in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Hilton also plans to open its delayed Waldorf Astoria luxury hotel in Ras al Khaimah next year, which will be its first property under the brand in the UAE. By far the biggest operator in the emirate, Hilton also has another hotel under development that is expected to open in the northern emirate in 2013.
The emirate recently launched its Ras al Khaimah Hotels and Tourism Development Authority to oversee the ambitious growth targets of its tourism industry, with a 10-year plan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into hotel and tourism projects, with the aim of quadrupling its visitor numbers and a target for tourism to make up 20 per cent of its income. The authority has said it hopes to achieve this "by positioning itself as a lower-cost destination to its ostentatious neighbour, Dubai". Ras al Khaimah's GDP accounts for just 1.5 per cent of the UAE's economy.
As part of its new tourism framework, the Banyan Tree Al Wadi luxury desert resort was last month transferred from Rakeen Development to the Government.
Hilton's hotels in Ras al Khaimah have enjoyed occupancy levels of about 85 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the company said. Last year, the occupancy levels at its hotels in the emirate averaged 70 per cent, accommodating about 80,000 guests in total. The hotels were popular among holidaymakers from the UK, Germany and Italy in particular, Hilton said. RAK Airways relaunched in the fourth quarter of last year after suspending its operations in 2009 because of the global downturn.
"The hotel industry in the Gulf is competitive, with other emirates and neighbouring countries vying to boost their total number of hotel nights, particularly at the four and five-star level," Oxford Business Group said in its 2011 report on Ras al Khaimah. "Growth in hotel guests staying in the emirate has been impressive, rising 132 per cent from 235,000 to 542,000 between 2008 and 2009. The majority of visitors come from Europe (54 per cent) and elsewhere in the UAE (37 per cent)."
