Ras Al Khaimah gets ready for a surge of tourists from the Nordic region

The Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) announced the opening of its first international representation office in the Nordics in a move to strengthen ties with the region.

Ras Al Khaimah is one of the fastest-growing tourism destinations in the Emirates. It offers culturally-driven sites, a feel of the old world, and yet it also offers modern attractions for the younger generation such as supercar adventures, concerts, golf challenges, and the world’s longest zip line.

In 2017, approximately 18,000 Nordic visitors stayed in the Emirate, either on holiday or on business visits. But in the first quarter of 2018, RAK attracted almost 10,000 visitors – an increase of 26.2% when compared to the same period of 2017. The countries in the region consist of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, including their associated regions of Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Aland Islands.

As the Emirates seek to drive its tourism sector, RAKTDA has opened its seventh international representation office. While it already has offices in Saudi Arabia, UK, Russia and Germany, the new office, which opened last April in Copenhagen, Denmark, is now one of the most important economic, transportation and communication centres in the region.

“The Nordic market is one of the fastest growing sectors”

Announcing the opening of the new office, RAKTDA CEO, Haitham Mattar said: “The Nordic market is one of the fastest growing sectors and last year it ranked in our top ten source markets for visitors.

“Already in 2018, we have seen growth in year-on-year figures up 26.2% in the first quarter. The opening of the Copenhagen office provides an important resource to grow visitors from the Nordic countries and for our partners in the Emirate to access this market.”

The strategy comes with a marketing plan, and representing the office is United Spirit Nordic, a Copenhagen-based PR and marketing agency. The agency aims to establish relationships with Nordic travel trade, to offer a reliable, efficient, pro-active, and hands-on team to maximise the overall goal of increasing visitor figures, length of stay and spend per person.

In addition, the new office will support the tourism body’s promotional activities and trade partnerships, to penetrate the regions high potential outbound market. A team of dedicated trade promotion, MICE and business development staff will manage various in-market promotions and initiatives to drive further awareness of Ras Al Khaimah, as a multi-faceted business and leisure destination.

RAKTDA is targeting 1 million tourists by the end of 2018 as part of its Vision 2019 tourism strategy and the Nordic region is on high priority.