DUBAI (Reuters) – Russian-speaking vacationers to the town of Ras Al Khaimah, a part of the United Arab Emirates, have dipped since Russia invaded Ukraine, however visitors from different markets have offset that fall and total visits are up this 12 months, an official mentioned on Tuesday.
Raki Phillips, chief govt of the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, mentioned vacationers from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and different former Soviet states sometimes made up 10% of annual visitors to the northern emirate about 120 kilometres from Dubai.
“However, through the disaster, in fact there’s been an affect, however we’re such a resilient vacation spot that is very worldwide in our customer arrivals that we’ve not seen an enormous dip within the numbers,” he instructed Reuters on the Arabian Travel Market commerce truthful in Dubai.
“Overall, we have seen an awesome enhance in new markets for us. We have been in a position to pivot, give attention to Latin America, give attention to the Indian market, and the GCC has been an enormous focus for us. All of these are markets which have been in a position to compensate any adjustments we have seen within the Russian market.”
The first quarter of this 12 months noticed 8% development of customer arrivals in contrast to the primary quarter of 2019, he mentioned. The fourth quarter of 2021 noticed roughly 5% development from the fourth quarter of 2019.
Before the pandemic, in 2019, RAK drew about 1.1 million arrivals. Last 12 months, it attracted simply shy of 1 million visitors and this 12 months, expects to attain over 1.1 million “and we’re aspiring to get shut to 1.2 million visitors,” Phillips mentioned.
Phillips touted a multi-billion greenback funding by Wynn Resorts as testomony to traders’ curiosity within the emirate’s tourism trade.
An built-in resort deliberate by Wynn Resorts, set to open in 2026, will supply “gaming”, a generally used euphemism for playing, which might be a primary in Gulf Arab nations.
Sources have instructed Reuters that playing could be permitted. UAE officers haven’t publicly commented on plans for the “gaming” resort.
(Reporting by Yousef Saba; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
