Ras Al Khaimah’s tourism sector continued to see growth in visitor numbers buoyed by significant increases from markets including Russia, Poland and India, according to CBRE.
Its Q1 2017 RAK MarketView report said the average length of stay of Indian guests also grew by 10.6% during the same period while visitors from the UAE, Germany, Russia and the UK remained key source markets.
It said around 500 new hotel and hotel apartment keys are expected to be completed over the remainder of 2017, with a similar figure to be completed in 2018.
Mat Green, head of research & consulting UAE, CBRE Middle East, said: “RAK’s hospitality market has witnessed a solid start to the year, with over 193,000 visitors recording more than 758,000 guest nights.
“This reflected growth of 8.3% and 18.7% growth in visitor arrivals and guest nights respectively on a year-on-year basis.”
RAK’s tourism trends have also translated into solid hotel occupancy and revenue performances, CBRE said.
According to data from STR, average occupancy rates were up 6.8% year-to-date (Jan-Mar) to 76.3%, versus the same period last year, whilst RevPAR’s rose 2.3% during the same period despite a 4% decline in average daily rates which continued to fall. Overall room revenues also rose, up 8.1% on the same period last year.
