The Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (Ras Al Khaimah TDA) has launched a guide to appeal to and inform potential investors of the benefits of investing in Ras Al Khaimah’s developing hospitality industry.

The Ras Al Khaimah Investors Guide was launched at the two-day Arabian Hotel and Investment Conference (AHIC) that opened today (April 29) at the Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai.

“In order to facilitate all investment opportunities in Ras Al Khaimah, we have created Ras Al Khaimah Investors Guide; an investment guide featuring the analysis of Ras Al Khaimah’s hotels performances, its indicators, number of hotel visitors and its forecast until the year 2020 as well as an analysis of Ras Al Khaimah among its comparable destination based on Ernst & Young’s data,” said Victor Louis, chief operating officer, Ras Al Khaimah TDA.

“Furthermore, we introduce to the investors the available investment opportunities including 35 plots within the Al Marjan Island, where UAE’s first Waldorf Astoria, Rixos Bab Al Bar, DoubleTree by Hilton and Real Madrid Resort will take place as scheduled. The highlight of the guide is a section where we provide the investors with complete 10 years plans feasibility studies of the different hotel capacities in Ras Al Khaimah.”

“Why invest in Ras Al Khaimah?” is one of the main sections in the Ras Al Khaimah Investors Guide featuring the advantages offered by the emirate to its potential investors. Tax–free is one of the Ras Al Khaimah’s highlights, where Ras Al Khaimah’s free trade zone has zero tax on income and capital gains as well as no property transfer or value–added tax.

The rising emirate is considered to be only one of the few areas, where Hotel GOP percentage reaches 50-55 per cent and was able to achieve $25 billion of foreign and domestic direct investment since 2000.

Additionally, Ras Al Khaimah is strategically important with an easy access to main investment and leisure markets; located 45 minutes from Dubai International airport, it offers an Investor-friendly environment with 64km of shoreline ready for development as well as a booming and diversified economy with a 28 per cent growth in GDP in 2000.

Clear strategic goals and targets have been set by Ras Al Khaimah TDA including increasing the total number of annual visitors to 1.2 million by 2013 and increasing the emirate’s total hotel and resort room inventory to 10,000 keys by 2016.

Currently investment is being sought for both the development of new hotels and resorts, as well as hospitality brands through innovative food and beverage outlets.

At AHIC, Ras Al Khaimah TDA is looking to highlight the robust performance of the emirate’s tourism industry and its attractiveness as an investment destination since the establishment of the authority in May 2011.

Hotel occupancy in Ras Al Khaimah remained extremely solid in 2011 for the beach resorts during 2011 were a healthy 70 per cent and 65 per cent in the city hotels indicating an increase of 9.35 per cent in beach resorts and 7 per cent in the city hotels.

The Revenue per Room figures (Rev Par) for 2011 also show an increase on 2010 with Ras Al Khaimah beach resorts enjoying a healthy increase of 24.5 per cent while the city hotels rose by a solid 10.24 per cent.

These figures were translated into Dh400 million ($108 million) hotels revenue stating an increase of 37.61 per cent compared to the year 2010.

Based on the released figures for the Q1 2012, the results are very positive, where the total number of hotel guests for January, February and March 2012 reached 306,750 compared to a total of approximately 208,000 for the same period in 2011, resulting in a 47 per cent increase.

Over the first quarter of 2012 occupancies have risen by a total of 3 per cent at beach hotels and resorts, and 11.5 per cent at city hotels. Additionally Revenue per Available Room (RevPar) also improved by 31.5 per cent for beach hotels and resorts and 50.46 per cent for city hotels.

The total hotels revenue is almost Dh139 million ($37.8 million) showing an increase of 40 per cent compared to first quarter of the year 2011.

“We have created an environment that provides encouraging returns on investment and through our continuing promotion and development of Ras Al Khaimah as a tourism destination we will continue to ensure that this environment continues and is strengthened for the benefit of investors and the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah alike,” Louis added. – TradeArabia News Service